


A Grimm Dimension

by Deathmaywrite



Category: RWBY
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-10-30 02:22:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10867023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathmaywrite/pseuds/Deathmaywrite
Summary: He didn't mean to fall into a new dimension. At least not for long. But now, he was stuck in a world of monster's known as Grimm with a request from a professor named Ozpin, and two teams of teenager the best he can till he can get home. That is, until part of his home leaks into this world, and it isn't anything good. Now Remnant faces a new threat, and it seems He'll be here a lot longer than he though.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. Welcome to my story. So, I have another series I'm currently writing, but I felt I wasn't posting enough, and to not drop quality in it, decided to write this! Check it out if you like this, as it includes an older, cooler version of this OC. It's called He's not like us. Anyway, if you have any question at all please, send me a message. Leave a comment and give me some kudos if you like it. Without further ado, the first chapter.

Sixteen year old Bryce Anderson was bored to tears. He loved his father and all, but he could be so freaking BORING! Bryce groaned as his dad, Zach Anderson, rambled on about dimensional travel. He looked at his dad’s  brown hair and green eyes and wondered how he could look so much like him, but be so different.

“As you know, our powers over Creation and Destruction energy allow us to control things in the universe slightly, as well as heighten our combat prowess, increasing speed, strength, durability, and motor and cognitive abilities, and even physical manifestations, combat or otherwise. But the most interesting of all is the ability to jump between dimensions.”

Bryce stretched out his legs, trying to let out his boredom anyway possible, his average frame and height, him being roughly 5’11, still hitting the desk. Bryce looked at the other students in the classroom. They all looked mildly interested in what his father was talking about. All of them tugged at their royal blue military uniforms, which was just a nice pair of khakis, and button up, long-sleeve shirts. They all were had taken his father’s class for ‘power control’ at a prestigious military school on Septon, Septonian home planet, called Epilarchía Academy.

“The ability to duck in and out between dimensions allows us to dodge attacks we might not be able to normally, no matter the scel. This ability is crucial to many of our fighting styles from Adíkima to Psychí Flow.”

Bryce’s head fell onto his desk. He’d been given this lecture from his father a million times, so while this may be news to those around him, it was driving him insane. He knew all of this already, and he also knew for fact his father wasn’t about to teach a bunch of sophomores and juniors how to use these dimensional portals. He was just going to teach them how to change their powers to fit different dimensions.

“However, sometime you’ll get stuck in a dimension you enter. So, to hide what you are, it’s often best to change your power to match what is seen as power in that dimension, or hide your power all together. Today, I’ll be teaching you how to change your powers to match the worlds you go into.”

The class whispered excitedly amongst themselves. This was  new idea for most of them, and thought it sounded awesome. To Bryce, it was aggravating. He’d been doing this since he was three. Due to his father’s teaching, he was better at manipulating his powers than most soldier on Campus. Even his father could barely outmatch him. He rolled his eyes as his father morphed his power to match that of dimension BL1, more commonly known as Bleach, nicknamed for some reason no one understood, but just let it go. His dad began to coach everyone as they struggled to match their teacher’s example, with varying levels of success, but never completely pulling off the trick. Bryce sat there doing nothing, till his father turned to him.

“Bryce, care to participate in the lesson? Just cause you're my son doesn’t exempt you from the assignments.” Zach scoffed, frustrated at his son’s attitude. Bryce merely rolled his eyes, and matched the power of SHinigami’s in a brief second. Everyone in the class gasped, while his father sighed.

“Thank you for that, although I would appreciate it if you’d not give me such an attitude as you do what I’ve asked.” Bryce sighed, trying to calm his aggrivated mind. He had a large advantage to most every person on campu, and had been learning to control his abilities from a young age, a luxury most  didn’t have. He couldn’t let that advantage cause him to be rude or abbrassive. His mom would kill him if he did.

“Sorry Dad, I’ll pay more attention.” Bryce apologized sincerely. Zach smiled and nodded before continuing on with his lesson.

 

…

 

After class, Bryce was walking to the cafeteria, as it was lunch time, when he heard someone calling out for him.

“Sigma! SIGMA!” a light-hearted male voice called. Bryce scowled and turned to see a small, blond with teasing brown eyes running towards him, waving. His army uniform was loose and flapped around his arms and legs wildly as he ran.

“Shut it Miles! Quit it with that stupid nickname. I get enough flak from you, Bailey and Natalie, I don’t need the whole school joining in.” Bryce crossed his arms and glared at the excited blond. Miles didn’t react, he was used to the expression.

“Aaw, but it was funny. You can't expect us to not hold it over your head,” Miles chirped, throwing his arm over his friend. Bryce just sighed, and rubbed his forehead.

“I quote that stupid Artificial Intelligence one time, and you can’t seem to let it go.” Bryce mumbled softly, only to hear Miles laugh.

“It was what you quoted and how it made you sound exactly like Sigma. It was too perfect.”

“Shut it. I don’t want to hear it from you, lover boy, especially when you can’t build up the courage to drop the news.” This quickly shut Miles up, as he blushed madly.

“Quiet you. If you say anything to Bailey, I swear I’ll-”

“You’ll do what exactly?” A confident, female voice interrupted Miles. The two turned to see a black-haired girl, roughly five-foot five, two inches taller than Miles, with blue eyes walk towards them. She wore the bottom half of their military uniform, while for a shirt she wore a simple light-green t-shirt, with her military top wrapped around her waist.

“We both know you can’t do much to him, and even if you could, I’d get even,” the girl smirked before grabbing Bryce’s hand. “Besides, I a may need him later.”

“I would hope so, otherwise I’d feel very neglected Natalie,” Bryce grinned, kissing her cheek. Natalie only rolled her eyes.

“Oh, lord help us, the great Bryce, prodigy of energy manipulation, ever feel neglected.” Natalie said, her comment dripping with sarcasm. Bryce winced.

“That’s already spread? Geez, I didn’t think people could tell rumors so fast.”

“What’d you expect. You act bored, annoyed, then easily do what everyone else was struggling to do. That kind of thing attracts attention like moths to flame,” Miles added. He had a good point. Those were attention grabbers. Bryce was about to say something in his defense when someone coughed in a means to say ‘excuse me.’ The three friends looked up to see Bryce’s dad standing in front of them.

“I’m sorry Natalie, but I need to steal my son for a couple minutes.”

Natalie nodded. “Sure Mr. Anderson.” She gave Bryce a quick kiss, and whispered, “good luck,” teasingly into his ear before she and Miles continued walking down the hallway, laughing. Bryce looked at his dad questioningly.

“So, what’s up? You need me for something?”

“Yes in fact, I do,” This surprised Bryce. His dad rarely ever required his help for ANYTHING. But before he could question the previous statement, his dad clarified. “Or rather, I want to help you?”

“What do you mean?” Now Bryce was really confused.

“Well, I know you’re frustrated with the pace of the class and what you want to do more. So, I was hoping to start teaching you to jump dimension.” Zach explained.

Bryce’s heart skipped a beat. “Wait, are you serious?”

Zach only smiled at his son. He could tell he was excited, as anyone would be who was about to learn this particular skill. “One hundred percent.”

“Dad,” Bryce grinned, “You are amazing.”

“It took you this long into your life to realize that? I’m disappointed.”

Zach only laughed while Bryce shook his head in annoyance, as they walked down the hallway to Zach’s classroom.

 

…

 

“Okay, now visualize the portal, just like we first started to teleport, but don’t imagine a place,” Zach told his son, standing by a computer, watching a list of nearby rifts dimensions run across the screen. They all were relatively safe, and easy to pull out of. Each dimension had a resistance to them when people tried to exit the, unless it was your home dimension. It was like diving into water with a weight on your back. It was easy going in, but harder to come back out, as the weight would limit your movement.  These open dimensions had openings between the fabric of reality, making them relatively easy to go in and out of, with very little weight behind exiting.

“Okay, I think I got it,” Bryce said. Zach nodded. Knowing his son, he probably did have it, unlike most naive students in his classes. But then again, he’d been learning how to use his powers since a very young age, compared to where most kids had started learning three or four years ago.

“Good, not exert Creation energy to make it, but sprinkle Destruction energy around the edges.”

Bryce nodded, then did as his father asked. The idea was simple, and Bryce understood why. The little bit of destruction energy would destroy a hole large enough to traverse to the dimension, while the creation energy created a pathway or pipeline leading to the planned dimension, rather than just landing anywhere, or worse landing nowhere at all. Second after attempting to do so, a blue, vortex like hole with black near the edges appeared in front of Bryce. He smiled and looked down at his sword, Alpha, attached to his waist, just in case something went wrong. He really hoped this wouldn’t be like his first teleportation alone, as it was embarrassing and he didn’t think he could live through his parents teasing a second time. The sword may have seemed excessive, but you could never be too sure in the world they lived in.

“Nicely done, now open your mind, and try to find a sound, with your powers and your soul, not with your ears, that you feel comfortable with.”

Bryce grunted, then sent out what he’d termed, ‘Sensory energy,’ which was perceptive creation energy, to listen for the sound. He tried to find one that he felt comfortable with, as his father had suggested. He looked for a full ten minutes yielded no success. He growled in frustration.

Zach had expected this. It took almost an hour on average, and it was common to lose patience multiple times before finding a dimension you could instinctively jump to in times of need. Zach was about to call out to Bryce to keep trying when the computer began to flash red, in warning. Zach looked down in worry to see a problem. On the list, one of the unentered dimension that had yet to be scouted appeared. It’s exit weight was the second highest ever recorded, far too heavy for most people to draw out of. But it was always closed off, and never drew close enough to be touched by their powers. Unless…

“Bryce, stop sensing for the sound! Your probing with Omni!”

While Bryce and Zach’s species, often only could connect to Creation and/or Destruction energy, the Anderson’s contained a rare gene that allowed them to connect to a third source of power. The universal energy, which was used to build, enhance, change, deconstruct, or destroy everything in existence, unlike the smaller and less potent energies most people knew about. This energy was five to ten times as effective as both Creation and Destruction energy combined. With it, any who controlled it could affect things at a larger range more potently, and quickly than others. This also meant that it brought on bigger consequences.

By the time Bryce’s father had called out for him to stop, it was too late, he’d found one that seemed calming, it’s energetic sound appealing. When Bryce realized what his father had said, his concentration broke, finally understanding what he’d said.

“Wait, what?”

With that, everything around Bryce popped. If you lose focus on a portal of any kind, especially one with Omni-energy within it, bad things happen. Often, the portal would suck in all close objects then close. Once Bryce’s concentration fell from the portal to his father, he was immediately picked up and sucked into the small vortex.

“Oh, shi-” Bryce started, only to be cut off as the portal closed behind him. Zach immediately sent out probes of his own and looked on the computer for any sign of the dimension labeled RWBY, but it was gone.

“Dang it,” The worried father cursed, “how am I going to explain this to his mother?”

 

…

 

Emerald Forest, Remnant

(All unknown to Bryce)

“Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttt!!!!!!!!” Bryce cried as he flew through a swirling dark purple and black vortex. Once he exited the dimensional path, he was in the air, hurdling fast towards a forest.

“Oh crap, not landing in those,” Bryce yelped, as he narrowly avoided hitting a large tree. Using his Creation energy, he hardened the air underneath him to a level that he could stop on top of like a platform. A useful trick his dad had taught him when he was eight years old. Granted, his father had proceeded to throw him off a cliff to speed up the learning process, but still, it was useful.

“Phew, that was close,” Bryce sighed. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was, but it didn’t look like any of the known dimensions he was taught about. Bryce shrugged before remembering what his father had told him.

“ Before you go trying to break out of this dimension, I would like to bring something you should know to your attention  .” A voice spoke in his head. Bryce sighed.

“What is it Alpha?” Alpha, his sword, not only was a great tool for combat, but also doubled as a companion for survival, as he was a highly advanced, wise mentor. He often noticed things Bryce missed, and due to his advanced teched out sensors that his father had spent a fortune on, he found things and understood them long before Bryce realized there was something to observe.

“ This world was on the red list. It would seem we can not currently leave this place till you replenish you Omni-reserves. The weight is too great for you to escape on your own with Creation and Destruction energy  .”

“Pffft, please, as if a measly dimensional jump could cause me to lose most of my Omni reserves. They may be small right now, but they’re not that small.” Bryce laughed, and tried to imbue a portal with Omni energy to come forth, working on the idea that it would be similar to that of creating the first dimensional portal, but nothing happened. He tried again, but he felt no rush of power through his veins. Trying again with Creation and Destruction, Bryce stood dumbstruck as nothing happened.

“So… I’m stuck here.” Bryce groaned.

“So it would seem. I tried to tell you earlier, but you ignored my observation.”

“Yes, and I”m sorry. If we’re stuck here though, it’d be best to find a place we could lie low and wait to restore the lost energy. First order of business is figuring out what their version of power is, then converting our power to it,” Bryce muttered to himself. He gripped Alpha nervously. “Any ideas?”

“ Well, there are roughly eight beings that I can identify as intelligent and humanoid to the north, near that cliff, ” Alpha responded. Bryce really hoped he didn’t look crazy talking to the air, as Alpha could only be heard in his head, via the chip implanted near his brain. He prayed no one was watching this, or heaven forbid recording this. Not only would he be under serious suspicion, but he’d also be thought of as crazy for talking to the sky while standing in the air.

“Good to know. Think you can emulate their power so I can match it?”

“ Give me a moment  ,” Alpha hummed with power for a second before the small amount of Creation energy he emitted changed to something else entirely, presumably similar to the eight people just ahead of them. “  This should be an accurate representation. I suggest changing most of your power to this, while leaving the amount you use to physically enhance your body intact. ”

“Good idea, Alpha,” Bryce nodded. He proceeded to take up Alpha’s suggestion, before continuing on. “Now then, I’ll go over there and say hi, figure out what this world is, then try to build up enough Omni-energy to get out of here. With how much I seemed to have depleted, it’ll be a long time before I replenish my tank anywhere enough to even possibly punch through this pocket.”

“ Fair point ,” Alpha acknowledged the intelligence behind the plan. And with that, Bryce dashed off towards the eight people, over several black, large, menacing creature, but ignored them for the most part.He dropped down fifty feet out from the sky to the forest line below to observe the eight unknowns in front of him. To his surprise, they were all teenagers, and split into two groups of four, fighting off two very large, angry black creatures. One was bird like, attacking four girls nearest to the cliff, while a scorpion-like monstrosity battled two boys and girls. Since those four were close enough, he observed them, trying to burn them into his memory, as he figured it’d be useful later. The first young man was in white armor, with a black hoodie, wielding a sword and shield, mainly playing defense against the large creature. He had blond hair, and looked like he was mainly directing the other three. The other boy looked older, with black hair, with a pink streak and pink eyes. He wore a green tailcoat and white pants, with pink arm band that went up to his elbows, from his hands. He wielded two green, machine pistols that had blades attached to them, and was jumping around the creature quickly, shooting it as much as he could to gain its attention.. The girl that stood next to him was smiling, her orange hair whipping around like crazy, with a gray shirt and pink skirt, swinging around a large hammer, smashing down the claws before they hit anyone. The last girl jumped around, flying smoothly between the monsters attacks, her red hair, tied up in a ponytail, flinging around, hitting it’s claws with a spear, blocking its tail with her shield. She wore a feminine, red breastplate, a spartan’s skirt, and red gloves.

“  Just a heads up, these creatures the adolescents before us appear to be fighting are inherently soulless. I sense no Soulspark within them.” Alpha informed Bryce. The teen shivered.

“Nekróspsychí?” He asked tentatively, paling slightly.

“ No, they are too instinctual, like animals, and considerably weaker. They don’t appear to be very intelligent. ”

Bryce let out a sigh of relief. The Nekróspsychí terrified him. They mode monsters from horror films look like child's play. It was a relief to know these things, soulless as they were, weren’t Nekróspsychí. Bryce locked at the two creature before saying, “Fifteen percent?”

“ Eighteen should cut it out by a safe margin. Just don’t fly or use any flashy attacks until we know much we can get away with  .”

Bryce nodded. “Fair enough,” he said, before diving out of the tree and running towards the first black, scorpion monster. As he got closer, one of the young men fighting the monster saw him approaching, and yelled at him.

“Hey, get out of here! This thing’s dangerous!” Bryce only smiled at that.

“Why do you think I’m attacking it?” He called back before grabbing the creature’s tail with both hands, and flipped it over his shoulder. It screamed in pain and frustration as it hit the ground. The blond boy just stared in shock, while the other three stopped their attacks and just raised their eyebrows in surprise at the turn in events. Before the creature could even attempt to right itself, Bryce jumped onto its underbelly and cut right through the creature, cutting the creature nearly in half.

“Okay, maybe I need to limit myself a wee bit more,” Bryce said aloud, as now everyone was blown away at what he’d done. This was going to be hard to explain in the future, but, that didn’t matter, he just needed to take these things out.

As soon as the creature began to dissipate into mist, Bryce ran off towards the other four people on the other side of the bridge, fighting the bird thing. As he ran fast the four who had been fighting the scorpion, three of them looked at him in awe, while the orange haired, hammer wielding girl stared at him with stars in her eyes.

“ There’s proof that you went a bit too far  .” Alpha said, and Bryce only shook his head as he began to get ready to climb up and fight the creature. Bryce shot ALpha’s plade like a grappling hook, which it partly was into the rock face. The sword broke into eight smaller blades, all connected to a metal wire, the tip of the blade separating into four hooks. Bryce pressed a button on the handle of the blade, and the line reeled him in, forcing him to come into contact with the cliff face. Before he could continue to try and go up the cliff face, a large thing fell past his back. Turning his head to see what it was, Bryce caught a glimpse of the creature falling into the crevice below them, headless. Obviously, the other four girls had succeeded in their attack, which impressed Bryce a little bit. Bryce jumped of the rocks after pressing another button to release the hooks from the cliff face, then shot it again into the top of the cliff. As soon as the hooks gripped the top, the tether pulled Bryce back up again, launching him past the edge and up to the ground above. He flipped multiple times, mainly for style points and because it was fun, and landed on the ground. Getting his bearing quickly, Bryce spotted four inquisitive girls looking at him as if he was crazy, which he didn’t blame them for.

One girl, who looked younger than the rest of them, stood next to the creature’s head, with a trail of smeared blood leading up to the severed body part. She held a hugely oversized scythe, which was stuck into the ground in one hand. She had short black hair that was tinted red at the edges and silver eyes, which Bryce found interesting, as that was a rare trait, even where he came from. She wore a red cloak on top of a black blouse with a high collar and a black skirt, with black leggings and combat boots. All of her clothes had red trims at the edges. Just a couple feet behind her stood the other three girls. The first to left was a blonde with long hair and purple eyes, and for some reason, aviator glasses. She wore a yellow crop top underneath a brown, leather jacket, paired with black mini shorts, underneath a brown belt that matched her jacket, along with leather, knee-high boots. On her arms were yellow gauntlets that looked like they had shotgun shells in them. She seemed to be smirking at him like he’d caught her attention. The third girl stared at him in disgust as if he were causing a problem. She had ‘perfect’ white hair pulled back into a ponytail, and blue eyes. She wore a pristine, white dress, and held what seemed like a fencing saber with what seemed to be a revolving chamber above the guard that had vials of some different colored substance. She seemed like a noble and it already ticked Bryce off, as he REALLY didn’t like nobles. Beside the noble girl stood a girl with black hair that had a black bow in it, and yellow eyes, similar to a cat’s, which already was raising flags in his head. She wore a black vest over a white sleeveless crop undershirt. She had one hand placed on her side, on top of a pair of white shorts, connected to white leggings. In her other hand, she held a sword with a bladed sheath, that looked like it had a pistol for a handle.

“Uh… hi,” Bryce said, awkwardly. He really was unsure what to say in this setting without saying something stupid to give himself away too much. He honestly didn’t even know if they understood Koinós, despite it being the most common language among the dimensions, for some odd reason he didn’t quite understand.

The younger girl in the red hood responded quickly, and not just in how fast she responded, but how fast she talked and zoomed around him as she ranted. “That. Was. AWESOME! You just jumped over the bridge like it was nothing, then shot your sword out and then you were like WHOOSH, then jumped off the wall, barely missing that Nevermore, and you were like VOOSH, and just shot up here and flipped like ‘yeah, i do that everyday.’ You gotta teach me how to do that.” Realizing she was rambling, she blushed and rubbed the back of her head.

“Oh, sorry about that. I haven’t even introduced myself. I’m Ruby Rose! What’s your name?”

Bryce looked nervously between the four people in front of him, three of which had questioningly raised their eyebrows in his direction. Bryce smiled, hoping it looked convincing, he really couldn’t tell.

“Um, I’m Bryce Anderson. Nice to meet you Ruby.”


	2. Hiding in a Shadow

Hiding in a Shadow

Bryce currently sat in a bland, undecorated room, which he assumed was a detainment cell, at a black desk. Seconds after reaching the top of the cliff, two security guards had showed up, and told him to follow him. Not wanting to bring more attention to himself as well as not cause more problems than necessary, he followed wordlessly, merely shrugging nonchalantly at the questioning looks all four girls had given him as he walked off.

They’d taken him to a large, skyscraper structure, that looked reminiscently like Epilarchía academy, at least in its early days. After guiding him through the twisting halls for what seemed like forever,  they led him into the room he now resided in, and asked him to hand over his weapon (which he was nervous doing, seeing as it wasn’t off this dimension, made of something probably not found here, and contained Alpha, which would be INFINITELY harder to explain), then locked the door after telling him to “Wait for Professor Ozpin,” whoever that was.

So, here he sat, bored out of his mind, waiting for someone who obviously was a figure of authority at this place to show up. Bryce sighed as he slumped in the metal chair he sat in, twiddling his thumbs anxiously. He sat, trying to think of a way to explain his sudden experience that would be believable, but any possible solutions kept avoiding him. With Alpha having been taken far enough away from him to not be able to communicate with him, he was on his own. Bryce’s option were really limited. An amnesia story would be seen as BS and shot down immediately. His earlier mention of a name kinda said he had memories. He didn’t know enough about this world to say he was a wanderer, and he didn’t think telling the truth was exactly the best idea. Bryce was irritated about not being able to converse with the smart, wise, and surprisingly funny Artificial Intelligence. Especially because he could really use his help right now.

Before Bryce could dive deeper into his thoughts, he heard the door at the other end of the room click, then open, revealing two important looking people, who proceeded to walk into the room. The first was a middle aged woman with blond hair, tied into a braid. Her cold, green eyes glistened behind the glasses that resided on her nose. She wore a long-sleeved shirt, with a black skirt, and purple cape that looked like flames. She seemed to be looking at Bryce sourly, as if he was the source of serious stress and frustration to her. The man next to her sat down on the chair opposite Bryce. He was older, but not by much, he was possibly in his late forties. He had neat silver hair, that didn’t seem to be styled. His brown eyes betrayed a calm sense of calculating intelligence, showing the man was wise. He held a cane in one hand and comfortably drank from his coffee cup, looking at Bryce in silent curiosity over his shaded glasses. He wore an unzipped black suit coat with a green shirt underneath, with a pair of dark green pants.

“Hello there, Bryce.”

Bryce, being an intelligent, even if he was brash, sixteen year old, didn’t react at this man knowing his name. “You spoke to Ruby it seems.”

“The man only smiled. “Yes, I did. It seems you thought things through carefully while you awaited my arrival.”

“So, you’re Professor Ozpin then?”

The now named Ozpin simply nodded, “Indeed. I’m glad to make your acquaintance.”

“Same. Who’s the pissed off women next to you?” Bryce asked bluntly, nodding his head to the blond women. Oz held back a laugh as a nerve popped forward on the woman’s head.

“My name is Glynda Goodwitch. It would be best if you remember that and stop being so rude and insulting to those of more authority to you, especially those who are obviously older and WISER than you.” Glynda growled. Bryce raised his hands in mock surrender.

“I give, I give, geez. I was just making a joke about how mad you were at my existence. Pleasure to meet you Ms. Goodwitch.”

“It would be better if you stop making jokes and listen to what Ozpin has to say to you. You’ll get along a lot further in life if you do so,” Glynda chastised, as if she was a parent scolding a child. ‘She must be a teacher,’ Bryce thought to himself as he rolled his eyes, and turned to Ozpin. Ozpin’s chuckle had died down into a bright smile at the antics playing out before him.

“All right, I’ll get right to the point, as I assume you’re well aware that we’re curious. We want to know who, and/or what you truly are, and if you are a threat to us, or a possible ally.”

Bryce felt a bead of nervous sweat appear on his forehead. “What do you mean, what I truly am?”

Ozpin didn’t say anything, rather he simply nodded to Glynda. The woman returned the gesture, then proceeded to pull out a large tablet that had a opaque, see through screen. Before he could really question why she was pulling it out, she tapped the screen to pull up a video, which started to play on the screen. Bryce saw a video feed from some unknown camera in the forest he’d… previously… been in… aimed at the sky… Understanding hit him like a ton of bricks.

The video feed showed the swirling blue and black portal appear in the air, spit Bryce out, who proceeded to catch himself quickly, and the portal lose. The camera turned to watch Bryce stand in the air for a couple seconds before taking off, almost fast enough for the camera to not catch his movement.

“Ah, frick,” Bryce sighed. Every lie he could’ve thought up was instantly thrown out the window with this. Ozpin looked amused at his reaction, while Glynda seemed to only grow more suspicious. “Welp, that’s an issue I really hoped I wasn’t going to have to explain so early on.”

“Yes, well, I think with this, we’ve shown enough reason to show why we have questions that we believe desperately need answers.

Bryce sighed. He wanted to lie SO bad, but he needed time, or Alpha, to craft a seamless story, which he had neither of.

“Okay, what I'm going to say will sound crazy-” he started, only for Glynda to snort.

“Young man, I doubt anything you will say will shock us,” she stated, staring him down like he was avoiding a class period. ‘Yup,’ he reaffirmed his earlier thoughts, ‘definitely a teacher.’ Bryce smirked.

“As I was saying, this will sound crazy but this is the truth and nothing but the truth. You seem like good people and obviously the heads of this ‘school, whatever it is, so I hope my trust isn’t misplaced.” Bryce looked carefully at the two of them. “I’m not actually from here, wherever ‘here’ is. I’m from a different dimension of reality altogether.”

This did surprise the two adults, who stopped moving, either drinking a cup of coffee, or accessing something on the tablet in their hands.

“Come again?” Ozpin asked incredulously. And with that, Bryce explained the basics of who he was, where he was from, how he’d ended up here, all of it up until that point. Ozpin and Glynda sat in silence for a while before Glynda scoffed.

“I don’t believe one bit of what I’m hearing. Tell us the truth, young man, or we’ll be forced to show our hand.” She demanded. Bryce only smiled

“Oh, really?” Consciously switching his power back to its normal state from whatever they used, he teleported behind the two. They both jumped slightly, and turned to look at him with wide eyes. “Tell me, can your power-”

“Aura,” Ozpin supplied.

“Aura then. Can Aura do this?” and with that, Bryce flicked his hand and exerted a massive amount of creation energy, which drew up a small chunk of his power, and changed the entire room into a fancifully decorated villa. The room grew much larger, the walls became a luscious red, with ornate lanterns lighting up the room. The table was turned into a cake table, with a very large, over decorated chocolate cake, at least in Bryce’s taste. Next to the cake sat a tea set with tea already in the cups.

“Not really my style, but I figured this’d get your attention,” Bryce shrugged, looking at the tw adults, who were AWESTRUCK at what this kid had done, with what seemed to be little to no effort. Let alone what he’d done should’ve been impossible. Turning to the good witch (Yang worthy pun), Bryce smiled. “Does that prove my statements or do you require more evidence?”

“W-what… how… how did you… even a maiden…” Glynda sputtered, standing in shock.

“Simple really. Well, simple for my people. You see, we learned long ago how to control and manipulate a universal energy that we called simply Creation Energy. Simplicity aside, it can change, manipulate, or enhance anything, even create something from literal nothing. Just about a thousand years ago, we discovered destruction energy, which is able to deconstruct, weaken, or destroy anything, unless counteracted.”

With another wave of his hand, and emanating destruction energy, he deconstructed the room he’d created, returning it to a regular detainment cell.

“During our growth we learned how to use the abilities for combat, using Creation energy to create powerful shields, walls, heavy objects, suit of armor, enhancing our muscles, or powerful weapons, while learning to use destruction energy to weaken enemies, cause weapons to break more, and release powerful destructive attacks.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Ozpin interjected, seeming to have gotten over the shock of such a powerful kid running around , as he once again calmly drank his coffee. Bryce sat down again, looking a bit more somber.

“Our focus on combat is… due to a long, brutal history. You see, even since the beginning, we’ve been hunted by other planets, species, and societies, for our vast technological understanding. But we were weak, and hadn’t taken the time to develop many weapons. IN a rush to save ourselves, we looked for anything that might save us. So came the discovery of Creation energy. We quickly began to master it, like fish taking to water. But we… caused problems. While we defended ourselves, we pissed off the universe. You see, while the universe isn’t entirely conscious, it is obsessed with balance, in all forms of the word. Good and evil, peace and war, Light and dark, creation and destruction. All these forces need to have balance, otherwise the universe becomes offset, which could lead to its eventual destruction.” Bryce shuddered, before continuing.

“We were throwing off that balance because of our continuous creations, and that we didn’t destroy enough. So, it created the Nekróspsychí in response.” Bryce looked like he was struggling with something internally before he spoke again. “Those creatures, those eight… students, were fighting, what do you call them.”

“Those are the Grimm. Soulless creatures, that feed off of negative emotion. There’s many different type of Grimm, but they're all animalistic in nature, acting initially on instinct,” the Professor explained to the young Septonian. Bryce simply nodded, adding the knowledge to the ‘important of later’ file in his head.

“Well, I sensed the soul thing, as a soul, in a small portion, is connected to a unique form of energy, that we call ‘life essence,’ simply put. Think of the Nekróspsychí as hollow, demonic Grimm with intelligence. Unlike Grimm, the Nekróspsychí don’t work on instinct, or survival. They work on one key idea. ‘Kill anything that could potentially offset the balance’”

Bryce tried to beat the memories out of his head before they could surface, but failed. He pushed them back down before they overtook him though. Looking back to the two people in front of him.

“The Nekróspsychí attacked any and all who wielded Creation energy without mercy. If done right, they’d often suck the soul out of people, and turn them into more Nekróspsychí, a process that is… horrifying to watch. These… ‘things’ emitted a powerful layer of fear, causing any normal person to become petrified with terror. Even weak Nekróspsychí were enough to take on a whole squadron of soldier, like it was nothing. They were trying to commit Xenocide, though I don’t think they rightly cared. IT was at this time, just before we became extinct, we discovered destruction energy. With this power now under our belt, two things happened. The first of which, the universe stopped creating more Nekróspsychí as now our power was balanced. The second, we were able to fight evenly against the Nekróspsychí. Four hundred years ago, we thought we got them all… until ten years ago, when they returned, stronger, faster, smarter, with more overwhelming bloodlust that the last time. They no longer only wanted balance, they wanted us gone for good. They hated us, despised us, and worst of all, wanted us, for who knows what.”

“To this day, we’re still plagued by them. Entire planets have been quarantined or destroyed because of them. Those foul… I can’t even call them beasts, because that would insinuate some form of life and survival instincts. These things only know how to kill. They don’t care how, why, or what happens to them, as long as they kill, it’s fine.” Bryce gripped his legs tightly as tears fell down his face. Ozpin and Glynda looked at his face sadly.

‘This boy has gone through too much pain already,’ Ozpin thought to himself, ‘It seems we on Remnant don’t have it as hard as we think we do. He’s seen war, no, he’s seen mass murder, bloodshed, extermination. How is he not a wreck.’ Ozpin thought hard for a moment before considering something. ‘Hmmm. I wonder if he could help us conquer our problems as well as allow us to help him get past his internal ones. Bring some more life into his mind.’

“Bryce,” Ozpin began, his calm voice gaining the teen’s attention quickly. “ I’ll be honest, I have no idea as to how dimensional travel works. I can say I didn’t even realize there are multiple dimensions. But I have an offer for you.”

Bryce wiped his face, drying his tears before responding. “I’m listening.” Glynda looked at Ozpin nervously, not sure what Ozpin was going to do, but she was sure she didn’t like it already.

“I want you to stay here at my school and help my students. You’re obviously powerful, and I have a feeling you could teach the first years to fourth years how to fight, think, and survive in a warzone, specifically two teams in particular. In return, I’d help you in anyway I can, give you a place to stay, and lend you any resources you need to get home. I may ask more of you later, but this is my offer for now.” Glynda Goodwitch disliked this idea heavily.

“Ozpin, are you insane? I don’t care how powerful this young man is, he’s only fifteen, sixteen maybe. We can’t involve him in our personal war, just because he’s here.” Glynda continued to rant on as Bryce thought.

‘I see us in these people,’ he thought, ‘I see a people facing a powerful foe that seems to have no end, and has been ruining lives. Before them is the power that could change things drastically, and of course they would grasp at it. That’s what my ancestors did. I know their problem, yet… it’s not too far gone for them,” Bryce thought fondly, ‘ they still have hope. I can’t let them lose that like we did.’

“Okay,” Bryce said, interrupting Glynda, who stared at him, “I’ll do it.

Ozpin nodded, while Glynda stared at the boy in shock, before yelling out in frustration, and leaving the room. Ozpin only sighed before saying, “I’ll have to set things up for you, so I’ll let you roam around,” Ozpin got up to leave when he stopped as Bryce raised his hand for him to wait a second.

“Two things. One, I want my sword back. Secondly, I need a lot of basic info on this place, as  I know nothing, and if you don’t want me to stand out like a sore thumb and cause even more issues, I need a lot of books about history, lore, Aura, weapons, current events, anything you think i might need to pass off as from Remnant, that’d be great.” Ozpin smiled at this, glad to see the boy was thinking this through.

“I’m glad to see you don’t want to raise red flags so early on. Read them in here, so you don’t get questioned. I’ll be getting resources for your stay, but if you need me, contact one of the guards. I think it’d be easier if you stay hidden till you have enough knowledge to pass of as a resident.” Bryce nodded, and smiled. Ozpin returned the warm sign of welcome, then left. A few minutes later, two guards walked in with a bunch of books that Bryce assumed were all about Remnant, and Alpha on top of one of the stacks.

“Here are your items, Mister…” the front guard stopped when he realized he didn’t know the teen’s name.

“Anderson, Bryce Anderson.”

“Well, Mister Anderson, contact me or Mike here if you need anything more.”

“Thanks, will do.” Bryce nodded, with a pleasant grin, then turned to the books as the guards left the room.

“All right. Time to get started.

 

…

 

“Damn it!” Zach exclaimed, slamming his fists on the keyboard in front of him. “I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Honey, calm down,” a woman, roughly thirty-nine, two years younger than Zach said, putting her hands on his back, trying to comfort him. “You didn’t know this would happen, and we both know our son will be fine.”

“But he’s stuck in the dimension with the second highest dimensional pull ever recorded. No one dares go in for fear of not coming back. And that’d be if they could find the damn thing!” Zach held back tears. “I lost him one, I can’t handle that again. I can’t let him go again, Eliza!”

“You think I can?” Eliza cried, running two hands through her platinum blond hair. Her blues eyes darkened as tears reflected off the lights on the ceiling. “I’m scared too, but I have to believe he’ll be all right.” She looked around, gesturing the the classroom they sat in, it’s large, college style seating, with desks looking so ominous in the dark, as neither had wanted to turn on more lights than necessary. “I have to hope he’ll be back here, being flippant in your classes, acing tests, otherwise I’ll… I’ll,” Eliza just sobbed, unable to finish her sentence.

Zach took a minute to calm himself down before grabbing his wife’s hand, and pulling her into him. “I know, honey, I just… I’m so afraid that we’ll lose him all over again.”

Before they could continue, someone knocked on the door. The Andersons looked worriedly at each other before the Patriarch called out, “Who is it?”  
“It’s Natalie, sir,” the two adults paled, “I just wanted to ask you something. It’s about Bryce.” The young girl sounded worried, almost scared. The parents instantly felt that they should tell her. That kind of worry deserved answers.

“Come in,” Eliza called nervously. Natalie opened the door timidly, a look of anxiety playing across her normally confident and beautiful features. She walked slowly over to Bryce’s equally nervous parents.

“What did you need, Natalite,” Zach asked kindly.

“Um… do you… know where Bryce is?” I can’t find him anywhere, and I can’t seem to sense his soul anywhere in the school.”

“About that,” Zach sighed disheartedly, and fear gripped Natalie’s heart. Whenever someone did that, it was never good. “You’ll want to sit down.”

“Natalie sat down on a chair opposite the desk Zach and Eliza sat at. She was sweating and starting to shake. “W-what’s going on? What h-happened?”

“Natalie, what we’re about to tell you must not reach anyone else’s ears,” Zach said somberly.

“What’ wrong Mr. Anderson? What’s going on?”

“I want you to understand that we’re trying to rectify the mistake, and-”

“What. Happened. To Bryce?”

Zach sighed, before looking nervously at his wife, who nodded slowly, then answered. “Bryce had an accident with a dimensional portal. An unentered one.

Natalie paled, before gripping the sides of the chair.

“During some one on one practice, a new dimensional portal approached range, and connected with Bryce. When I tried to tell him to stop from reaching to it, as it had a powerful pull, he’d already found it, lost focus when I’d called for him, and was sucked into it.”

“I-I don’t understand, why can’t you just go get him?”

“Well, the dimension in question won’t stay near any source of power long enough to enter, except Bryce. This is due to our ‘unique’ ability.” Zach said in air quotes. Though Omni-energy wielders were rare and powerful, making up 3% of the population of Septon, it was a well guarded secret. If a child was shown to wield the gene to develop a connection, the government would inform the parents of their child’s ability, then swear them to secrecy. Natalie understood what he meant, as her father was a scientist who worked on the project dealing with Omni-energy. It was where she and Bryce had first met.

“Because of this, we can’t even try to start a portal to enter this dimension, let alone actually get in and find Bryce. Second of all, it’s too heavy for anyone to get out of, meaning Bryce is stuck there for now until we can figure something out.”

The three of them sat there in dead silence for two minutes as Natalie sat there in pure terror, shaking, pale, and unable to move. Finally, she stuttered, “T-t-thank y-you for tell-telling me. I-I’ll be going now.” With that, she ran out the door. Zach bit down his own fear as she left.

“That girl is acting exactly how I feel. I just hope this feeling doesn’t last long,” Zach mumbled worriedly as he held his concerned wife against his chest.

Outside, Natalie sat by the wall, and cried. She looked up to the sky, through the skylight above the big blue walls, seeing dark clouds roll over the sky threateningly into view.

“Bryce,” she sobbed, “where are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, if you liked this chapter, drop a comment and leave some kudos for this story. Tell your friends about this story, and if you have suggestions, tell me, I'm willing to listen to ideas about how to make the story better. Anyway, until next time, and as always, Stay Cool!


	3. Answer for your thoughts?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWBY interrogate Bryce on his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone, the limited few that you are. If you could share this store with anyone who loves RWBY that'd be amazing. Also, if you could drop a comment to tell me what you think so far, that'd be much appreciated. I love to hear feedback, good or bad. Just tell me what I did wrong, if that's all you got. Whatever you feel is necessary. I'd just love to make this a better experience for you all reading this.

Answers for your thoughts?

After a full day of reading and researching, Bryce finally felt like he had enough knowledge to get by reasonably. With the help of Alpha, he’d created a believable story, that explained him, his whereabouts, origin, and how he’d ended up here. Or in Emerald forest, as he’d discovered to the forest he’d originally landed in to be called.

He was currently at a school known as Beacon, a prestigious school for teenagers to become Hunters and Huntresses, who were professional fighters who fought Grimm and crime alike. They seemed to take missions like guilds, and often worked in teams, or at least that was the general idea. There was no specific requirement for it. With the use of modified weapons and Dust, essentially magic for them (creation/destruction energy) in physical form, they fought off the Grimm to keep from destruction and had created four different kingdoms. Vale, where he currently resided, Mystral, Atlas, and Vacuo. Also, all hunters and huntresses, training or not, had Aura which as far as Bryce could tell, was a booster in physical abilities and a large defense. It was physical manifestation of the soul that could protect, heal, and enhance one’s physical form. Then, there was semblances, which was a unique ability that came from one’s soul. This ability could range from enhanced vision, to invisibility, gaining physical strength, or even summoning monsters to fight alongside you.

“Ya know,” Bryce sighed, smiling slightly, “It seems it won’t be as hard to hide here as much as I thought originally. Sure, I’ll have to limit myself somewhat, but with the idea of Aura and Semblances, I can just have more Aura than most, and I can pass of any basic manipulations with creation and destruction energy as my semblance.”

“It is kind of crazy how our universes parallel so easily in that regard, ” Alpha agreed, “ But that only makes it easier to hide here. Now, you’ll just need to find the dorm room you’re staying in and get some sleep. You know what happens if you don’t.”

“I know, Alpha, it was only drilled into my ever since i was a toddler. Hopefully this scroll Ozpin gave me doesn’t guide us down the wrong way,” Bryce motioned to the cellular device in his hand, it’s guide feature currently pulled up.

“Now, let’s see, I take a left at the next hallway, and room 344 should be three doors down on the left.” Bryce looked down at the scroll again, remembering how he’d been given the device after informing Ozpin of his story, so that there wouldn’t be any inconsistencies between what he and Ozpin, as well as any staff that needed to know, said about where he came from, who he was, et cetera. Ozpin had told him the basic rules of Beacon, which were mostly alike any other school, so he didn’t worry about them too much. Ozpin waived him on the uniform, saying as long as he wore his military uniform to classes, he should be good. Ozpin  had told him for the first day to do as he liked, and suggested following a team around to their classes, and try to make friends.

Bryce really spaced out as he thought about what the future held for him, so much so that he didn’t see one of the dorm room doors swing wide open, and hit him right in the face.

“Gah! What the hell!” Bryce cried as he stepped back, holding his slightly injured nose. As Bryce looked up to see a familiar face peeking past the door.

“Oh, I am so sorry, I didn’t mea- Bryce, is that you?” Ruby’s voice went from apologetic to surprise in no time flat.

“Sup,” Bryce merely waved the hand not rubbing his nose. Ruby jumped up and down.

“Oh, oh, it’s so cool to see you! Oh, you to meet the rest of my team, they didn’t even get the chance to say hi to you cause those guards escorted you out. Why’d they do that by the way? Did you do something wrong? Oh, who cares, you can explain it all in the room. Come on!”

Bryce, who only really understood the last part, tried to stop her. “Hey, hold on a sec-” that was all he got out before he was grabbed by the arm and pulled haphazardly into the unorganized room. Bryce looked at the beds and all he could think was, ‘Are we sure these kids can’t use any creation energy?’ They had one bed above another by attaching ropes to the ceiling by seemingly nothing, the other two beds stacked on top of each other, balanced by the use of books on each pillar to hole the top bunk in place. Each setup was somehow stable, and Bryce had NO clue why or how.

On all but one of the beds sat the other three girls Bryce had seen with Ruby. The noble girl with white hair sat in the bottom left bed doing homework. On the bottom right bunk sat the long haired blond girl laughing at something on her scroll. The black haired girl, who Bryce was starting to suspect was a faunus, sat on the top bunk on the right, in the very corner, reading a book. Faunus were basically humans with some animal feature, like a dog’s nose, monkey tail, or what Bryce suspected in girl’s case, cat ears.

“Blake, Yang, Weiss, I found Bryce, that guy we saw yesterday during initiation. The one that cut the deathstalker in half,” Ruby exclaimed, jumping up in down in excitement.

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to find you and talk to you about that. I’ve got a lot of questions for you,” the blond smiled as she sat up,” I’m Yang by the way.

The black haired (faunus) girl looked up and spoke next. “I’m Blake, if we’re doing introductions. I have many question for you. You’ve got me curious.

“Hmmm… though it isn’t any of our business, I guess i myself have also been wondering about your previous whereabouts, and your sudden appearance,” the assumed Weiss, who looked both at and down at him at the same time, commented. She seemed to do it unconsciously, as if she’d been trained from an early age to do so, which further supported his noble theory.

Wanting to test his theory quickly before these four dove into the obvious interrogation that was about to take place, Bryce said, “Well, you four seem as curious as cats, and we all know what they say about that,” Bryce gave a quick glance at Blake. She paled, and her bow twitched.

‘Welp, confirmed that one,’ Bryce thought as Ruby and Yang giggled, while Weiss just snorted.

“Uh, we are not faunus, or cats for matter, you dolt,” Weiss scolded Bryce angrily.

Blake’s bow twitched again, more noticeably this time. Luckily for her, the rest of the team were in front of her, facing Bryce. Ruby finally got everyone to sit down, and Bryce prepared himself mentally before saying, “Alright, hit me. What do you wanna know?”

“First off, who are you really?” Ruby asked.

“What?” This question confused Bryce, and caused him to be slightly worried. Did they know what he was as well?

“You know, how old are you, what do you do, basic introductory stuff.”

“Oh, okay. You could’ve just said that.” Ruby merely shrugged at Bryce’s response, and waited patiently for an answer, “Well, my name as I mentioned earlier is Bryce Anderson, I was training to be part of my town’s military force, and I’m sixteen.”

Everyone looked floored at this. “SIXTEEN!” Yang shouted.

Bryce was surprised at the outburst for a moment before responding. “Yeah, I’m sixteen, why?”

“You’re sixteen and you can throw a deathstalker around like nothing? What kind of military does your town have?”

“Why are you even here, if your training to be part of your town’s military force?” Blake interjected. Bryce nodded, to show acknowledgement to the question.

“Well, as you have probably guessed, I’m not exactly a student here-”

“Called it!” Yang laughed. A glare from Weiss shut her up.

“Anyway, I come from a remote village near the badlands.”

“The badlands!” All four gasped in shock. Bryce groaned.

“Yes, the badlands. Can you be quest long enough for me to finish my explanation?” Bryce stared down all four girls, as if daring them to interrupt him again They didn’t.

“Okay, now, we lived on the edge of the badlands and train to fight the toughest grimm possible. No matter the job, military or not, they train to use their aura, semblance, etc from the age of four.”

“Woah, that’s hardcore,” Yang muttered. Bryce chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess it is. But, I grew up with it, so to me, it’s normal. About four days ago, I got into a fight with a kid who was bullying one of the underclassmen. He was the son of one of the council members, you know the type. Thinks he’s numero uno and the top dog, immune to social constructs and rules. During the fight, I hit him too hard and his neck snapped, permanently paralyzing him.”

“Since his friends threatened the girl they’d been picking on, she didn’t testify at my trial in my defense. I got convicted with a class B crime, which means banishment from the village for a minimum of three years.”

“One of the people in our village has a semblance that lets her teleport things to a random location. Never anything big, only human sized or smaller. She used her semblance on me, per my father, another councilman. I ended up here, and have just kinda been wandering.”

Bryce’s story wasn’t a complete lie. The bullying incident had really happened, and if Miles hadn’t beat down the two friend of Jamison, the aforementioned bully, threatening Bailey and her brother, he would’ve been kicked out of Epilarchía academy. The last part was a lie, but it was a legit punishment one could receive in society, for that level of crime. What he’d done hadn’t classified legally as a class B crime, but regardless, it was a legit sentence.

“Woah…” Ruby whispered, blinking back tears.

“Just like that? They just kicked you out, no food, no water, no help?” Blake asked, incredulously.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Bryce nodded, shrugging. Honestly, it was a normal concept to him. Septonians were taught from a young age to like anywhere and constantly took trips to other exotic and remote places to learn and survive on their own. The idea felt natural to him, and he couldn’t honestly say he understood their reactions. Guess that’ the differences in cultures. “So, I ended  up in the Emerald Forest, and kinda just walked. Yesterday, I heard gunshots and explosions, and just followed the noise. That, consequently, lead me to you guys, fighting the Deathstalker and the Nevermore.”

“That’s… very hard to believe,” Weiss stated, blatantly suspicious.

“Oh really, snow angel?” Weiss’ eye twitched at the nickname. Bryce payed it no mind. “How else do you explain it? I just accidentally fell through a portal from another dimension and ended up here?” Bryce deadpanned. He really hoped telling the truth, which he hoped seemed to them so insane of a possibility, that they’d automatically believe his story. THey sat in silence for a moment before Weiss shrugged.

“Fair enough. It’s just weird to have never heard of towns near the badlands before.”

“Why do you think we’re there in the first place?” Bryce shot back.

“He makes a good point,” Blake nodded. Weiss merely huffed in response, crossing her arms and scowling slightly.

“Thank you Blake. Now, any other questions you’d like to ask?” Ruby’s hand shot up instantly. “Yeah, Ruby? This isn’t a classroom, you can just ask.”

Ruby blushed a little in embarrassment. “Oh, sorry. Just kinda used to it when someone asks if we have questions. Anyways, what does your sword do, what’s its name, how’dyougetittodoeverythingitdid, canitturnintagun, canit-” Ruby’s voice began to speed up as she went on till Yang slapped her in the back of the head, which (thankfully) cut her off.

“Sorry about that,” Yang snickered, “She’s a bit of a weapons enthusiast. Actually, eccentric is a better word for it.” Despite denials from Ruby, the rest of her team nodded in agreement.

“So I noticed,” Bryce chuckled at the team's interactions with one another. “Anyway, my first weapon, and my main one, is Alpha, which is a double-edged shorts sword, with a grappling hook and whip feature. It’s made out of a steel/titanium alloy, so while it’s heavy, it's amazingly sharp and durable.” Now, while this was partially true, as titanium and steel were common across most dimensions, the metal he’d coated the blade in, dýnamium, was not. Which meant he had to conveniently leave that out.

“As for ranged,” Bryce reached behind him and pulled out his favorite Desert Eagle, a fifty caliber pistol loaded with armor piercing rounds. He often just pulled it out of a pocket dimension most Septonians stored their gear, but he’d been consistently wearing it to hide where he really got it from, or lack thereof to everyone around him.

“Woah, a… a… what is that?” Ruby drooled, looking longingly at the camo patterned, glowing purple hand cannon in front of her. ‘Obviously Desert Eagles don’t exist here. Interesting, they usually show up somewhere,’ Bryce thought.

“I’d have to agree with Ruby here, I’ve never seen that kind of gun before, not even with the experimental weapons my father brought home to look over,” Weiss mentioned.

“It is a bit strange. I mean, dude, your gun is literally glowing,” Yang agreed. Blake looked at the gun nervously.

“That doesn’t look like it was designed for combat with Grimm,” she said, slowly, her pale skin getting paler than normal. At this point in time, Bryce had only one thought on repeat in his mind. ‘Oh.... shoot.’ This gun was a modified military issue weapon. Meaning it was designed to fight not only the Nekróspsychí, but it was meant to be used against other people using similar weaponry.

“That’s because it’s not,” Bryce stated simply. Everyone grew quiet, even Ruby, whose previous interest in the gun disappeared as she realized the implication of what he’d said. “It’s meant to combat people who might attack our village. Raiders, thieves, murders, kidnappers, or even other villages. It’s a common problem over there.”

“Okay.” Blake simply nodded, accepting the answer. She visibly brightened in color. The other four girls sighed in relief.

“Geez, Bryce, don’t do that to a girl,” Yang teased, “You had us worried you were a murder or part of some terrorist group,” At the mention of terrorist, Blake’s ‘bow’ twitched again, which raised red flags in Bryce's head.

“I can research the girl, sir. For now, I suggest continuing to answer their questions.” Alpha read Bryce’s mind as he continued to look for information on the scroll that Ozpin had given the two.

‘You know, you could help me,’ Bryce growled inwardly at the robot within his sword.

“But this is a great learning experience for you. Besides, I’m busy,” the serious delivery made the joke that much worse.

‘Grrr, you are so infuriating sometimes,’ Bryce grumbled in his brain.

“So… what is this thing exactly?” Ruby’s question snapped Bryce back to reality, especially as he picked up the gun and began to inspect it. Taking the gun from her hands, Bryce answered.

“Oh, this is a fifty caliber Desert Eagle, with armor piercing rounds, modified to be imbued with aura to give it a big more punch, and can punch through just about most metal an inch thick. It wrecks anything weaker than that. The camouflage design is mainly just for show, but the purple glow is the artificial aura. The aura keeps the gun in almost perfect condition along with increasing the speed, power, and strength of the bullets.”

“Ruby’s eyes became stars as she stared at the gun in awe. “That things a fifty caliber? That’s awesome.”

Weiss raised her hand. “Explain the importance of caliber for those of us who don’t use bullets that are metal.” Blake nodded, as did Yang. From what Bryce could tell, she used shotgun shells, not pistol or rifle shells, so it made sense that she would understand gauges, but not caliber. Bryce pulled out a bullet from the gun to reveal a bullet that was thirteen millimeters long, encased in a near four inch casing.

“Calibers are based on a bullets size and the amount of gunpowder used to fire of the bullet within the shell itself. This bullet is the largest regular caliber, and has the most gunpowder overall, the largest bullet, meaning it’s the most deadly. Armor piercing is just a way to say the bullet is designed to be more pointed and tougher than normal to pierce thing from metal to concrete, making regular means of armor obsolete.”

Yang whistled. “Dang, that’s impressive.”

“Oh… My… Oum… YOURGUNISATINYSNIPERRIFLE!” Ruby squealed out so fast, Bryce didn’t catch most of what she said, grabbing the gun and flipping it in her hands, and even pointing it dangerously around the room.

‘Alpha.’

“ Yes Bryce?”

‘Remind me to never let Ruby be alone with that gun.’

“Duly noted.” Quickly, Bryce took the gun from Ruby’s hands, causing her to pout slightly.

“You know, I kind of have to laugh at the fact that the marksman of the group is the one to so blatantly mishandle a gun.” Bryce grinned as Ruby’s face flushed as she realized what she’d just been doing.

“I just wanted to try it,” Ruby mumbled to herself.

“You’ll see it in action during combat class tomorrow.” Bryce told the pouting sniper.

“Really?” Ruby brightened, staring wide eyed at the Septonian, not that they knew that part. 

“Yes, really.”

“Speaking of combat, what is your semblance?” Blake asked inquisitively. Bryce only smiled.

“You’ll also see that tomorrow, I promise. I’m not so careful to hide mine like others,” Bryce said.

“Wait, so if you're going to combat class tomorrow, you're going to Beacon now?” Weiss asked, bewilderedly.

“Yeah, well, more like he offered me somewhere to stay for now till I can go home. Since said place happens to be a school for Huntsmen and Huntresses, I’ll be going to beacon for now till I can go home.”

“Oh… I see.” Weiss looked a little bit humbled at her question, realizing just what it was she’d asked. Of course he was going to stay here, he literally had nowhere else to go, and was obviously strong. If Ozpin would recruit Ruby two years early for being skilled, then he’d definitely take a powerful young boy who had no place to call home currently under his wing.

“Anything else you feel like asking?”

“Yeah, I got one,” Yang blurted, interrupting Blake, as she went to ask something herself, “How’d you get strong? I didn’t think that kind of physical strength was possible normally. I mean, you sliced through a deathstalker, armor and all, like it was nothing.”

At this, Bryce began to laugh. As he laughed, all four girls stared at him nervously. ‘Why was he suddenly laughing?’ they all thought. It was really nerve racking. Finally, Bryce calmed down enough to speak.

“Oh, ahem, I’m sorry, it’s just… you guys remember where I lived, right?” It took the girls a brief second before understanding hit them full force.

“The badlands…” Blake responded slowly.

“Yeah, the badlands. That Deathstalker was a wimp compared to what we fight against normally. We trained daily to increase our natural strength to insane levels, as well as training our aura to enhance our bodies even further. Without aura, I can regularly bench about three thousand pounds. With aura, I can life about three times that.”

What Byce told them was an understatement. Current Septonians were built to be deceptively strong compared to other species. So while Bryce was sort of muscled, he could really lift close to four thousand pounds without the enhancement of creation energy, which quintupled his strength. Then, because he controlled omni-energy, his strength grew ten times that.

“Yang’s eyes were wide with envy, while everyone else was completely shocked.

“Seriously?!” Yang shouted. Bryce simply nodded to her outburst, confirming what he’d just said. Yang glared at the young man, pointing an accusatory finger at him, “You have to teach me how to get that strong.”

“Nope, trade secret,” Bryce grinned teasingly at the blond, who only growled in response.

“I will get you to teach me, so help me, or I’ll-” Bryce cut her off, leaning forward right in her face, grinning.

“You’ll do what, exactly?” Bryce challenged. Yang looked lost for a brief moment, before she smiled devilishly.

“I’ll figure something out,” she replied mischievously.

‘Alpha, second not.’

“Listening, sir.”

‘Never let me be alone in the same room as Yang. I’m worried as to what she might try.’

“Will do, Bryce.”

“Is that all the question you have for now?” Bryce looked to each of the girls, only to see Blake timidly raise her hand. The other three looked to Blake, and Bryce nodded to her. “Go ahead, I can take one more question.”

“What are your thoughts on faunus?” Blake asked. Weiss scoffed, which earned her a glare from Blake while Bryce simply snorted.

“What about them? They’re people, just like the rest of us. Unless a faunus does something to me specifically, I’ve got no quarrel with them.” Bryce answered honestly, understanding why the girl was asking this question. She was worried that she may have to hide herself even more from him if he were cruel to faunus. But to him, the idea of faunus wasn’t much of a problem. He’d been dealing with alien species that looked way crazier than faunus, like lizard people, some ghoulish beings, and even literal intelligent slime. Faunus were on the lowest spot on his list of weird, even less weird than his own species. If he could think of all those different species as people, and that they deserved rights, he wouldn't be hard pressed to think the same for faunus.

“That’s good,” Blake muttered, relief flowing through her, but not enough to be noticeable from her team.

“Now, if we’re all good here, I’m going to head to bed, because I have been up for the last twenty-four hours, and I am DEAD tired.” Bryce made his point by flopping onto the floor. All of team RWBY looked at each other before Ruby pouted, then responded.

“Yeah, we’re good for now,” Ruby pointed at him, poking his chest, “But we’ll interrogate you more if we feel like you left ANYTHING out.”

Bryce just nodded, then went to his own room right next door. He collapsed on top of the lone bed in the room.

“Ugh, I didn’t think creating artificial energy with creation energy could be so draining.”

“Did you really expect otherwise. You had no natural energy left, so to use what little reserves of your creation energy to keep yourself awake would obviously be tiring.”

“Huh, fair enough. Alpha?”

“Yes, Bryce?”

Don’t wake me up for anything.”

“What about a Nekróspsychí attack?”

“Fine, unless it’s life threatening, don’t wake me up.”

“...”

“Alpha?”

“No promises.”

“Ugh, frick off, you stupid robot.”

With that, Bryce fell asleep, and dreamed of home.


	4. Chapter 4

Canon fire

“Hey,” a voice spoke softly, which confused Bryce. He only could think of two people who’d dare do that with his sleep riddled brain.

“Ellie or Aubrey, I don’t rightly care which one it is, leave me alone, I am TIRED,” he grumbled, rolling over in an attempt to throw the person on top of him off, but it didn’t work.

“Bryce, wake up.”

“I swear, if you don’t let me sleep, I’m going to cut both your hair again.”

“I don’t think that’d be a good idea. I get really protective over my hair.”

It was at this comment that Bryce realized it wasn’t either of his sisters who were on top of him. Sleep leaving him faster than he could take a breath, Bryce’s eyes shot open, and he looked up to see a very feminine blond laying on top of him.

“Hi!” Yang said cheerfully.

“Whah!” Bryce jumped off his bed, throwing Yang to the floor in the process. She sat up smiling happily.

“Oh, Bryce, I didn’t know you were so rough. Please, be gentle.”

“Yang, what the heck are you doing in here?” Bryce growled, completely ignoring her jab.

“What?” Yang asked innocently. Bryce glared at her, knowing he probably wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of her.

“Get out. Now.” Bryce lifted a finger and pointed to the door, reaffirming his words.

“Why? I haven’t gotten what I wanted,” Yang grinned teasingly. He got what she was implying, but didn’t really care.

“I don’t care if it’s for answer or for training, it can WAIT!”

Yang’s face lit up at the opportunity, and Bryce groaned internally as he realized what was coming. Leaning forward, she pointed a finger at him.

Oh, and what if that’s not what I’m after. What if I’m after something else?” yang leered.

‘Alpha.’

“Yes?”

‘You disobeyed my previous note.’

“What do you me- oh… I’m sorry, I was busy researching some important topics.”

‘Next time, please pay a bit more attention then this time, because this is really a situation I’d hoped to avoid entirely.’

“Noted.”

Bryce leaned forward, not blushing at the girl’s actions. Thanks to two REALLY pushy girls in Jr. High, and being surrounded by immature teenage boys, sometimes himself included, he was WAY beyond used to it.

“Yang, if you don’t stop teasin me, I may just ‘accidentally’ find a certain girl’s web history, and ‘accidentally’ reveal it to the whole school, and explain it all to a young, naive sister said girl may or may not have.”

Yang paled, realizing what Bryce was implying. “W-what… how’d you-”

Bryce let out a devilish smile. “I didn’t, you just gave me all the proof I need. Now, leave me alone

Yang glared at Bryce, and tried to call his bluff. “You wouldn't dare.”

Bryce grinned even more. “Try me, I dare you.”

Yang looked lost. She’d never had someone so openly challenge her, let alone brush aside her teasing like it was nothing. She grinned.

“You win for now, Mr. Anderson. But one way or another, I will get you to train me.”

“Hmph,” Bryce grunted as he pushed Yang out the door, “We’ll see about that.”

Once Bryce had locked the door he let out a sigh of relief. He looked at the clock. It read eight thirty-five. Classes started at nine o’clock. Bryc stirred the creation energy inside himself, which was a good way to gauge how much he had. He found he was full, which pleased him.

‘So, what’s our first class?’

“Combat Class, with Ms. Goodwitch. If you follow team RWBY or JNPR, the other group of people we met two days ago, you should find the class.”

‘Huh, good to know. Now, for a bit of a wardrobe change.’

With a quick thought, Bryce’s dirty uniform was replaced with a clean one, with a minor change. Bryce was in his formal combat uniform, which was a full camo jacket, a green undershirt, and camo pants, along with combat boots.

“Much better,” Bryce clapped. “Now, I need to get some food and head to class.” With that, Bryce headed to the cafeteria, with the assistance of Alpha. As he sat down with his meal, waffles, bacon, scrambled  eggs, root beer (don’t judge), he saw Ruby waving wildly for his attention. Chuckling at the display, he walked over.

“Sup Ruby.”

“Bryce, what’d you do to Yang,” Weiss questioned before he could even sit down. Ruby looked slightly miffed she’d been rudely cut off from replying to Bryce.

“What do you mean?” Bryce asked worriedly. This didn’t sound good.

“Ever since she went to your to ask you to help her get stronger and wake you up she’s been…”

“Despondent?” Blake supplied.

“Off?” Ruby added.

“Downright weird.” Weiss finished.

“Okay, I literally kicked her out of my room after I woke up to her being on top of me. That’s it.” Bryce defended. “I have no idea why she’s acting how she is.”

“Wait, did she tease you? Like, suggestively?” This question shockingly came from Ruby, which suprised the other three people at the table

“Yes,” Bryce answered tentatively.

“Did you react?”

“No, not really. I’m kind of used to at it at this point. If anything, I took a shot back at her.”

Ruby stared at Bryce in silence for a moment before saying, “Welp, good luck with that.”

“Woah, hold on a minute there, Ruby. What’s wrong with Yang?” Weiss wondered aloud, saying what all currently at the table had been thinking.

“Oh. Well, Yang likes to tease people a LOT. So, when she finds someone she can’t get to react normally, she makes it her mission to use just about everything at her disposal to get them to fall victim to her teasing.”

Everybody, especially Bryce, was horrified at the news. Weiss facepalmed in frustration, not wanting to deal with this situation. Blake sighed and shook her head in disgust, wondering what she was going to do with her partner. Bryce on the other hand… Bryce proceeded to bang his head on the table continuously.

As this was going on, Yang approached the table. While Bryce didn’t notice, due to his head still pounding into the table. While Bryce didn’t notice, Alpha did, and warned him of the oncoming threat.

‘Bryce, yang is approaching the table.’

‘Thanks, Alpha. Say ‘Mark’ if she tries anything funny… I’m just gonna… continue on here…’

‘Acknowledged.’

Yang walked right past Bryce, and tried to pinch his side.

‘Mark.’

Bryce instinctively slapped behind him, swatting Yang’s hand away. She smiled mischievously as she sat down next to Blake.

“Heeelllooo everyone. You guy’s almost ready for classes?” Yang said cheerfully. Everyone stared at her blankly

“What?” Yang raised an eyebrow at everyone. “What’s up?”

Weiss sighed before saying, “You’re going to leave him alone during classes.”

Yang looked mildly hurt, and glared at Ruby. “How could you, sis?”

“What? I can’t let you abuse him without giving him the heads up,” Ruby whined indignantly.

“You’re so cruel, Ruby. You’ve ruined all the fun,” Yang pouted, crossing her arms, and glared at the table. Bryce just sighed before looking at Blake and Weiss.

“Are they always like this?”

The two girls looked at each other before shrugging.

“Yeah, pretty much.” “Yes.”

“Great,” Bryce snickered. “They are a lot like my sisters.”

“You have sister?” Weiss questioned, shocked.

“Yeah, two of them. Ellie and Aubrey.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about them earlier?”  
“You didn’t ask.”

Blake smiled and looked at Weiss. “He makes a valid point.”

Yang finally stopped pouting after Ruby had talked her out of it. Ruby smiled to the other three at the table, giving them the thumbs up.

“We’re good.”

“Great, now,” Bryce turned to his food. “I have food I want to eat real quick.” Everyone began to dig in. After a surprisingly comfortable silence, before Yang broke it.

“So, Bryce, serious question here. Why aren’t you named after a color? Or your sisters now that I think about it. I mean after the war it's common to do so, and I assume you guys were affected by that small town or not.”

“What does your name even mean?” Blake added. Bryce nodded and double checked with Alpha.

‘You think they’ll buy the real reason we get our names?’

‘Well, as long as you relate the art, symbols, and definitions, you should be good.’

‘That’s good to hear.’

“I see why you guys are confused by that, but it’s pretty simple. You see, we saw art as symbols and meanings. Blue meant courage, red was strength, yellow, ingenuity. We took that to heart and rather than name people after colors, they earn a name that represents them at four years old.”

“For instance, my name, in an old language called archaíos, means force, strength, and valor. I earned it after the defeat of a beowulf to save my friend Miles. Aubrey’s means Elf ruler, and she earned hers during a Grimm attack at some ruins known as the Elefin castle, where she lead her friends back to safety during a school trip. Finally, Ellie is just short for Elinor, and it means light, bright, or torch. She got her name when she saved some wins from committing suicide, as well as her semblance being a giant release of bright light. She’s always friendly and bright in everything she does.”

Talking about his sisters hurt. He was reminded of how much he missed them. Tears welled up in his eyes of how much he missed them. The times they’d shared, all the games they’d played together, all of it. The final gut punch was when he remembered Natalie, his parents, and Miles. Tears flowed freely.

“Dust, I miss them,” he mumbled, wiping tears from his eyes. All of RWBY looked at him sadly, their hearts aching to see him so broken, so lost, so homesick. He felt a hand on his back and looked up to see Ruby standing besides him.

“Hey, don’t worry. We’ll make sure you make it back to them.” She smiled cheerily, before turning to the others, “Right guys?” Blake, Weiss and Yang all nodded in agreement, smiling as well. 

Bryce felt his heart lighten a little. ‘Maybe being stuck here won’t be so bad.’

“Thanks guys, I needed that.”

‘Bryce.’

‘Yes?’

‘ It’s 8:55.’

‘...Frick.’

Bryce looked down at his scroll, as to not look like he didn’t just figure out the time from a voice in his head, and jumped up in ‘surprise.’

“Oh crap, guys we gotta go NOW. It’s 8:55.”

RWBY froze for a brief second before Ruby exclaimed, “Oh no, not again!” There then proceeded to be a mad rush for their first class with Ms. Goodwitch.

 

…

 

“Today, we’ll be running sparring matches among all the students, to test your basic combat skills, and what you all need to improve on overall. Match ups have already been randomly predetermined and I will call upon you one at a time to fight.”

“Does anyone have any questions before I continues?” Ms. Goodwitch glared directly at Bryce, who rolled his eyes. He could already tell she didn’t like him. Guess she didn’t like his attitude with Ozpin earlier. ‘Oh well,’ he thought, ‘Can’t win them all.’

‘With your personality that happens quite often with serious adults.’

‘Oh, Frick you.’

“No? Well then, let us continue on with the class,” She looked down at the clipboard before she called the first pair of fighters. It was n one he recognized, which honestly didn’t surprise him, so he watched the match absentmindedly, trying to discover the average skill level rather than actually watching the combatants. He was rather disappointed at how low it was.

‘Cut them some slack, Bryce. You’re fighting in a fully trained army meant to fight other species from around the galaxy. Their combatants are often mindless monsters.’

‘Still, a little bit of skill in person on person combat would help.’ Alpha agreed on that point. Two more matches past, both with less than exciting results, but Ms. Goodwitch, (if he really didn’t want trouble he’d have to start calling her that, even in his head) commented that they were ‘good’ matches. Probably just trying to inflate their egos to make them work harder.

“Pyrrha Nikos versus Bryce Anderson,” A low growl came out at Bryce's name. Okay, this was going a bit far, even for him. He hadn’t been that bad had he?

‘ You don’t want an answer to that .’

‘You really know how to build a guy’s ego up, don’t you?’

‘Please, I can’t break that fortress if i tried. At least your ego isn’t compensating for anything.’

‘Wow, that was almost a low blow. Still gross though.’

Bryce sighed as he got up and walked down into the arena with his sword, holstered pistol, and his combat uniform. The redheaded girl he had seen in the forest fighting the deathstalker walked down the the stage next to him. She smiled as the hopped down into the arena.

“Pleasure to finally meet you, Bryce. May we have a good fight,” Pyrrha said cheerfully, extending her hand. Bryce shook it and nodded.

“Same here, Pyrrha. Good luck.”

“If you two are done introducing yourselves, let us continue,” Ms. Goodwitch packed suddenly.

“Wait, Ms. Goodwitch,” a kid with brown hair in armor, a mace covered in dust sitting next to him called out. Ms. Goodwitch looked at the boy in frustration.

“What, Mister Winchester?”

“Who’s the army kid? I mean, I have never seen him before, and I know he wasn’t there at initiation, so who is he?”

Ms. Goodwithc growled and told Cardin frustratedly, “It doesn’t matter who he is right now. Be quiet and please let the match continue.” Cardin wisely shut up. At that, the two combatants drew their weapons, Pyrrha readying her sword and shield, and Bryce drawing Alpha, while leaving the deadly pistol in its holster for now.

‘Any info on her?’

‘Yes, I’ve got some tidbits that might help.’

‘Well, care to inform me one those ‘tidbits?’

‘ During the fight. Good way to continue to train your defensive instincts. We’ve been slacking on that during training.’

‘Ugh.... You are easily the most annoying AI in all existence.’

‘ The Alpha from RvB, Church, Sigma.’

‘I retract my previous sentences.’

“Good luck you guys!” Ruby shouted, not really sure who to cheer for, as she knew and liked both of them. Yang chuckled and started passing money around, obviously setting up a betting ring around the fight. Bryce felt slightly annoyed at this.

“Kick his butt, Pyrrha!” The blond boy who’d been leading the attack on the deathstalker called out from the stands, next to what Bryce could only assume was their teammates. Bryce laughed at the display while Pyrrha snickered and shook her head. Ms. Goodwitch ignored the outbursts, and called for the match to begin. The two fighters looked at each other for a brief moment before the clang of metal on metal rang throughout the arena. The two had their swords crossed against the each other and were pushing for dominance. With a giant surge of power, both pushed, and were pushed back a couple feet, their feet sliding in the dirt. And with that the real battle began.

Pyrrha dashed forward, spinning wildly, but in a controlled manner, jabbing, swingin, stabbing in a quick flurry of strikes. Bryce defended each attack as he listened to Alpha.

‘ Pyrrha Nikos, winner of multiple different tournaments, and commonly referred to as ‘Ms. Invincible.’ She wields a shield, as well a sword that can be a javelin or a rifle. She uses both for offense and defense. She’s not only good with weapons, but is a skilled hand to hand fighter.’

‘Semblance?”

‘ Unknown. Maybe if you push her enough, I’ll be able to catch it, but past that.’

‘Got it, make her use it.’

Bryce quickly stopped playing defense, and as he barely countered on of her swings, then kicked her in the gut. She stumbled back and looked up just in time to see a swift strike aimed for her head approaching. Barely reacting in time, she blocked Alpha with her own sword. Then Bryce’s onslaught began. Pyrrha barely kept up, Bryce’s skill, speed, and strength trumping her own. Her defense was falling apart and both of them knew it. Finally, Bryce’s sword slipped past her shield, stabbing towards her shoulder, only for it to barely miss as it was pushed to the side by an invisible source.

‘Alpha, did you catch that.?’

‘I saw it. Push a bit more, I’ll have an answer as soon as I can.’

Bryce dodged a jab from Pyrrha’s javelin, and knocked her shield aside. He swung again as he saw an opening, only for it to be moved just enough for it to miss yet again, allowing Pyrrha to take a shot at Bryce. This cycle continued for another minute, before Alpha cried out.

‘ Bryce, I’ve got it.’

‘Great, because this was getting really annoying. What’s she got?’

‘Polarity. Simply put, she’s manipulating the metal to move it where she wants it to by replicating the abilities of a magnet on any object she bushes her semblance into.’

‘Oh, so it’s magnetic, basically.’ Bryce smirked.

‘Exactly.’

Bryce flicked a switch on Alpha. ‘Suddenly, I don’t regret that trip we took to Asteroid 49.’

 

Pyrrha was struggling. She hadn’t expected this guy to be so good. She’d obviously known he was strong, flipping a deathstalker over your shoulder was no easy task, but this was different. He wasn’t perfect, he’d left himself open a select few time during his attacks, but his speed, strength, and overall reaction time stopped any attack before they could make any real contact. Even then, Pyrrha had the nagging feeling he was holding back. The only reason she hadn’t lost was due to the fact he was using a metal sword. Never had she felt so blessed the have her semblance.

Pyrrha watched Bryce’s movement carefully, trying to predict his next attack. It wasn’t impossible to do, it was just difficult to react to them in time. And they said speed and strength was always outdone by skill.

Pyrrha watched as Bryce stared at her intensity, slowly walking around her. Then to her surprise, he stopped. And smiled, eerily. It certainly scared Pyrrha a bit, as the smile was beyond unnerving. Then, she saw Bryce dash forward, at an insane speed, a slip his sword in a large swing past her defense. She immediately activated her semblance to try and pull it back just enough to miss her. Only for the blade, to slice across her stomach taking off a chunk of her aura.

‘What?’ She wondered, shocked the blade had made contact. She dived back as the blade made a returning sweep towards her. She tried experimentally to pull the sword out of his had, only for nothing, not so much as a flinch, to occur.

“Confused?” Bryce’s sudden words surprised Pyrrha.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Oh, don’t play clueless. The look doesn’t suit an accomplished warrior such as yourself.” Bryce shook his head, then dashed forward, swinging his sword down at Pyrrha’s head. She blocked it with her shield, and swung at him with Milos, her sword, only to see it be blocked by an oversized pistol with a faint glow.

“Your semblance isn’t working. You're confused as to why, and don’t act like you’re not. We both know you could pull my sword around with your polarity, but now, all of the sudden, you can’t.” Pyrrha’s eyes widened in horror as she realized he’d figured out her semblance.

“How?” She gasped. She was so lost on how he’d figured it out, and how he’d counteracted its effects.

“Simple. I had an incident with magnetic rocks, and it was kind of a problem. So, to avoid further issues, I created a safety system in my sword that constantly changes the polarity of my sword, allowing it to avoid the effects of magnets for the most part. And because of that experience, I’m able to recognize a magnetic pull when I feel one.” he smirked. He had her all figured out, it seemed, which scared her a lot. She didn’t know where he came from, but it seemed his upbringing would be her downfall.

“Now, I think it’s time i finish this,” Bryce kicked out, but hit nothing but air. Her resolve hardened more so than it ever had. She HAD to beat him.

“I will not lose, not today at least,” she growled, switching Milo to a javelin.

“We’ll see about that,” Bryce snorted, before Pyrrha rushed him.

 

Bryce had to admit, Pyrrha had finally closed the gap between them. She was fighting with her all, and it showed. She increased her speed and strength, while still keeping an amazing amount of skill within her moves. Granted, he wasn’t fighting at full capacity, but still, giver her some creation and destruction energy, and she’d be able to go up against any seasoned vet back home at the academy.

Pyrrha landed multiple hits on Bryce, before finally locking his sword in her shield. Bryce flicked a switch on his Desert Eagle, and a blade popped out the bottom of the barrel. He’d need any sort of extra defense now that she was giving it her absolute all.

Pyrrha pivoted her foot to swing her body in an attempt to throw Bryce trapped sword out of his hand as well give her an opening to hit him. He didn’t release the sword, and she got an easy opening to kick him in the chest as he stumbled slightly to the side. Backing up slightly, Bryce lept over Pyrrha as she charged him again. Turning, readying for his landing, Pyrrha was shocked to see Alpha implanted in the ground next to her. Clicking a button, the sword reeled in almost instantly, allowing Bryce to flying kick Pyrrha across the arena.

As she stood up, she barely looked up in time to see Bryce charging her. The fight began renewed, the sound of metal of clashing against metal ringing proudly. They traded blow for blow, dodging, ducking, weaving, striking, swingin, blocking in an elegant dance of death, neither having the upper hand. Finally, the two jumped away from each other after a particularly harsh clash.

“Well *huff* *huff* that certainly was *huff* entertaining,” Bryce smiled as he gripped his sword tighter, and adjusted his hold on his Desert Eagle.

“I *huff* must agree,” Pyrrha nodded, “this *huff* is *huff* quite enjoyable.”

“I think it’s time I even the field,” Bryce sighed, as he stood up straight. Pyrrha took a defensive stance. She didn’t like where this was headed. “Since I know your semblance, I figure it’s only fair you know mine.”

Bryce smirked as he touched the small bits of creation and destruction energy left within his soul, and exerted it as an outward force. The ground around him cracked and white mist with black around the edges began to emanate from him. Bryce pulled his arm back and in swung his sword in an underhanded swing towards Pyrrha. An arc of pure white energy lashed out and flew towards Pyrrha, who barely shook of her shock in time to dodge the projectile.

“What the-” Pyrrha started, only to be interrupted once again by a large white sword with black mist coming off it stab at her. It slammed into her chest, sending her skidding backwards. Bryce rested Alpha on his shoulder, and snickered.

“Crazy semblance, huh?” Bryce laughed as the crowd stared at him in awe, while Ms. Goodwitch glowered at him. Ruby looked like she was going to faint from the pure awesomeness playing out in front of her, at least, in her mind.

“What on Remnant? How?” Pyrrha gasped as she recovered, and stood at the ready, glaring daggers at Bryce. She shook slightly, the impact still affecting her.

“I can use my Aura to create physical manifestations of my attacks or gear. From projectiles, to armor, to swords, to afterimages, as long as I have aura, I can do it. Granted, it takes a lot of aura to do so, but I’ve got plenty to spare.”

Pyrrha groaned in frustration. ‘This couldn’t be a simple fight, could it,’ She thought to herself. Bryce was making her nervous. He’d been unwittingly prepared for her semblance, was barely stronger, faster, more skilled, and especially more experienced as far as she could tell, and his semblance was one of the most volatile and versatile she’d ever seen. But she couldn’t deny the overwhelming excitement that had laced her entire being throughout the battle. This fight was exhilarating, and she loved it. It’d been so long since someone could challenge her on such a level.

“Well, I fear I’ve run my course, and I’ve got to end things here. It was a good fight while it lasted.” Bryce said as he raised his pistol towards Pyrrha. In the stands, everyone could mildly hear Ruby squeal in excitement. She’d been waiting so long to see what that gun could do.

“It’s not over yet, and I won’t let it end that easily,” Pyrrha smiled, preparing to dodge the shot.

“Huh, I’m glad to hear that,” Bryce laughed, and looked right at Pyrrha. “Alright, in the words of a very wise, old witch, Dodge This.” Pyrrha barely had time to dive to the side as three runes appeared in front of the gun. There as a large BOOM, and everything shook slightly. Looking back to where she’d been standing previously, only to see a huge hole in the wall, with small fires leading up to the hole. Bryce smiled as he aimed at Pyrrha again.

“We both know you won’t be able to dodge all of these, so we can either continue and you can take a hit from this thing, or you can give up now.”

Pyrrha squinted at Bryce and gripped Akouo and Milo tighter and growled back, “I think I’ll take option three.” Bryce grinned and the runes appeared in front of his gun again.

“Sorry, but that’s not an option today.” With that, four shots rang out. Pyrrha only dodge three. The fourth caught her in the chest. The resulting explosion sent her into the wall, and she felt her aura shatter as she hit the wall with a loud THUD. When the smoke from the blasts cleared, Bryce was seen to be standing perfectly still, holding his gun in the exact same position as earlier. Everyone sat in shocked silence, as Pyrrha lay on the ground, gasping lightly for air, as the wind had been knocked out of her.

Ms. Goodwitch looked wide eyed at the scene before her, and couldn’t muster words for a second, before she remembered she was the ref of this match.

“A-and that’s the match. The winner is Mr. Anderson.”

Pyrrha looked up to see Bryce standing above her grinning widely, holding a hand out for her.

“Good fight Pyrrha. That was a fun match.” Bryce commented as he helped Pyrrha to her feet. Pyrrha smiled and nodded.

“I couldn’t agree more. I haven’t had that much fun in a match for a while.” Bryce laughed. While they walked back to the stands, Ms. Goodwitch commented on their fight.

“Ms. Nikos, It would be wise to note that in the future it would’ve been wise to use more ranged attacks if you find your opponent outclasses you at melee range. Mr. Anderson…”

“Yes?”

“Be careful what you do. While you did defeat your opponent, you also caused massive damage to the surrounding area, as well as endangered innocents.” Bryce felt a nervous sweat drop from his forehead. He could feel the threatening aura that was flowing off Ms. Goodwitch, that seemed to be saying ‘DON’T YOU EVER ENDANGER MY STUDENTS EVER AGAIN OR I WILL END YOU.’ A very clear message.

“Got it, Ms. Goodwitch.”

“Good,” Ms. Goodwitch coughed, and the murderous feeling dissipated. Bryce began to walk up the stands, only for Pyrrha to stop him.

“Thank you again for that match. I’m glad we got the chance to fight,” Pyrrha smiled, holding out her left hand to shake. Bryce smiled, but nervously held out his right hand.

“I do agree, the match was amazing, but, uh, could you shake this hand please?”

Pyrrha looked questioningly at Bryce, before she noticed his tense, shaking left hand. It was red, and had a bit of blood coming down.

“Oh my, are you okay?” Pyrrha gasped as she grabbed his left hand and looked at it. Bryce waved it off, and withdrew his hand from her grasp.

“I’ll be fine, although I thank you for the concern. My aura’s big enough I’ll recover fairly quickly. I should be a-ok in a couple minutes.”

Pyrrha still looked unsure, but replied, “Alright… if you say so.” She was silent for a moment before she asked, “Did I cause that?”

Bryce looked surprised but shook his head. “No, you didn’t. It was the gun.” Bryce looked at his Desert Eagle in his holster. “While this gun is powerful and a great asset, I can only fire it so much before it starts to affect my muscles. When I use those amplifying runes, they maximize the damage I take, but also greatly increase the damage it does. Usually I only fire off a rune shot once or twice. Today, I made the mistake of firing it off five times. This is the sad, yet expected consequence.”

Pyrrha was silent at that. “Wow… that’s crazy. Do you really need that, if it does so much damage to yourself? Is it that strong?”

Bryce immediately thought of the Nekróspsychí, and shivered.

“I can say with full surety that it is that strong and that it’s definitely necessary. It’s kind of my trump card in a fight, and it’s gotten me through a lot of tough fights that I didn’t think I was going to win.”

“Then why’d you use it against me? You could’ve won the match without it.” Pyrrha asked curiously.

“Look at Ruby.” Bryce pointed to the excited leader of team RWBY, who was drooling, looking at the pistol at his side. Pyrrha laughed at the sight, as Yang giggled at her sister, Blake was trying to hide her smile, and Weiss was visibly irked at how Ruby was acting. “She asked to see it in action. I promised to do so. I figured a safe environment would be a better time to see it than on the battlefield, so that’s why I used it.” Bryce gripped his shoulder as his arm spasmed. “Though, I’m starting to regret that decision.”

“Well, I hope to duel you again.” Pyrrha smiled as she said her next line. “Preferably without the gun.”

Bryce grinned. “We’ll see about that when we get around to another fight.”

“Till then.”

Both fighters went back to their teams. Bryce saw Yang holding a large stack of cash, smiling like a crazed cheshire cat. Ruby still had stars in her eyes, staring at his Desert Eagle. Weiss looked miffed, but more at Ruby than himself. Blake stared quietly at his injured arm. As he sat down next to her, he waved it off and motioned for her to be quiet. Then, Ruby finally burst.

“Bryce! YOUR GUN IS AWESOME! You have to let me try it sometime. I mean, youwerejustlike “Dodge This,” thenblewaholeinthewallandslammed PyrrhaNikos intoawallwithabullet, it was so COOL!”

Bryce only understood only half of what the girl said, but told her he wouldn’t be letting her try his gun anytime soon. She pouted at this and seemed to be trying to create a plan on how to get the chance to look at her gun. Bryce made a mental note to keep his gun on lockdown for the next little while.

“I have to say, Bryce, you impressed me. Beating the Invincible Girl is no easy feat. Though,” Yang playfully tossed the money in the air, “I bet you were going to win from the beginning.”

“Betting on a school endorsed match is a horrible thing to do, and you should be ashamed of yourself,” Weiss huffed, as she glared down at the arena waiting for the next match to start.

“You’re just saying that because you lost money,” Yang teased.

“Shut up.”

Bryce laughed and turned his attention to the small crew of people working on fixing the arena up before the last match. While his friends all watched, Bryce retreated into his thoughts.

‘I know my gun was strong, but I don’t ever remember it being that painful to fire. Geez, that hurt a LOT. Even with the limiters I created it dealt a crapton of damage.’

‘ Well sir, that’ probably because it’s still imbued with destruction energy, and lots of it. Had you switched it to an aura based energy, it wouldn’t have hurt as much, yet stil being useful. Maybe not as deadly or destructive, but still effective.’

Alpha’s explanation made sense. Destruction energy severally outclassed Aura, so while he had lots of aura and a small dose of creation energy enhancements, it wasn’t enough to truly compare to the Desert Eagle’s massive amount of destruction energy. For a weapon anyways.

‘Well, it seems I’ll have to rectify that later. I don’t want my hand to be in sever pain every time I have to use this while I’m here. At least, as long as I keep up the facade of being from Remnant.’

“Alright, our next fight will be Jaune Arc versus Cardin Winchester.”

Bryce sat back in silence to watch the blond leader of Pyrrha’s team walk down with a sword and shield in hand. Ruby called out to the blond. “Go Jaune!”

“So that’s his name,” Bryce whispered. Yang looked at him, with a raised eyebrow before realizing what he meant.

“Oh yeah, you haven’t really met all of team JNPR yet besides Pyrrha. We’ll have to do that after class.”

“Sure. But for now, let’s see how this goes.”

With that, the two of them turned to the match in front of them. Bryce wondered who was going to win.

 

…

 

“You sure you're okay, dude?” Bryce asked Jaune for the third time after the match. Jaune had really taken some big hits during the fight, and it was obvious to Bryce he was being bullied by the brown-haired, mace-wielding brawler.

“I’m fine, really, just a bit sore,” Jaune smiled softly. Bryce could easily tell it was faked. Jaune was definitely NOT fine. All of team RWBY and the rest of JNPR, which had all introduced themselves more formally to Bryce after class, could tell he wasn’t.

As the group sat down in the cafeteria to eat some food, Bryce stared at Jaune.

“Dude, I’ll be honest here, you don’t seem ‘fine.’ especially with from what I’ve heard is Cardin bullying you.”

“Psh, what? Cardin? No, he’s just teasing me.”

Every eyebrow at the table was quickly raised in a questioning glare.

“He is constantly hitting you,” Ruby started.

“He’s always insulting you any chance he gets,” Nora, the hammer wielding, orange-haired added.

“And then there’s the locker incident,” Pyrrha pointed out.

“I didn’t land to far away from the school.” Jaune grumbled.

“Jaune, you know if you really need help, you can just ask,” Pyrrha said, putting a hand on her leader’s shoulder. Nora suddenly jumped up in excitement, sending Rens food to the floor.

“Oooh, I know. Let’s break his legs.” After everyone dismissed the idea, Jaune stood up to leave.

“Guys, really it’s fine. Besides, it’s not like he’s only a jerk to me.” That was when everyone at the table heard a gasp of pain, followed by some laughs and a girl saying, “Ow, that hurts.” Everyone turned to see Cardin pulling on a bunny faunus’ ears cruelly.

Team CRDL just laughed more as Cardin chuckled, “See, I told you they were real.” At this point, Bryce had seen enough. He was done standing by, and there was no way in kólasi he was going to let this continue. It went against everything he’d done in the past. Standing up and marching over to team CRDL. Cardin reached up to tug the poor girl’s ears once more, one for his hand to stop mid reach. He turned to see Bryce holding his arm.

“What? Hey, let go,” Cardin said, trying to rip his hand out of Bryce’s grip. Bryce glared at the brown haired bully, and shook his head.

“No, I don’t think I’ll be doing that.”

“Hrmph,” Cardin finally slipped his hand out, and went to grab the girl again, only for Bryce to grab his hand again.

“Stop it. Now. Leave the girl alone,” Bryce snarled. Cardin only smirked.

“Girl? What girl? I only see a filthy vermin. What, she your pet?” Cardin snickered, as his team ‘oooooohhhhh ed as if that were a burn. For Bryce, that was the final straw. Anger coursed through his veins. Letting go of his hand, Bryce grabbed Cardin’s shirt with one hand, and threw him out one of the Cafeteria’s windows. The resounding crash of shattering glass caused silence to overtake the lunchroom. Bryce lept out the window after the bully, and many students clambered to the windows to see what was going on. Team RWBY, JNPR, and the rabbit faunus walked outside to see Bryce pound a fist into Cardin’s gut. The bully grunted in pain as he flew into a wall opposite the grassy clearing they were in. Cardin stood up and growled.

“How dare you! Why would you hit me?”

“Do you really not get why yet, or are you just playing stupid, hoping it buys you some time?”

“Hey, all I did was call scum what it was,” Cardin yelled back, as he ran at Bryce, and tried to punch him. Bryce twisted past Cardin’s attack, Grabbing his arm in the process, and put him in a backwards armbar, his foot pressing him into the ground while he pulled hard on his arm.

“You wanted to know who I was earlier, right.” Cardin nodded, and gasped in pain as the heel of Bryce’s foot dug into the small of his back. “Well, I’m just a kid from the badlands, kicked out of his own village, who ended up here.”

“I bet it was because your worthless trash,” Cardin joked, only to grunt as Bryce put more pressure on Cardin.

“You’d be wrong. It was for paralyzing a bully like you for teasing a faunus. Permanently, I might add. Can’t bully faunus when you’re stuck in a wheelchair and can barely move your arms, can you? So unless you want to end up like HIM, I suggest you STOP. IT. NOW.” Bryce pulled on Cardin’s arm with every word. Cardin felt like his arm was going to snap, even with his aura. “Do I make myself clear?”

Cardin howled in pain. “Frick you, dirt bag!”

Bryce glared at Cardin, then let him go. Cardin recovered quickly, turning around and sitting up, intending to get back at the new arrival, only to freeze when he saw the deadly pistol Bryce had used earlier in class aimed directly at his face.

“Do. I. Make. My. Self. Clear?”

Cardin nodded dumbly. He had a feeling if he took a hit from that gun point blank, he wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon. Once Bryce saw Cardin’s affirmative response, he pulled the pistol away and holstered it.

“Good. Now,” Bryce walked over to the rabbit faunus, who flinched under his gaze. She was nervous as his hand reached out to her, looking away out of anxiety. Only to be mildly surprised as the hand rested on her shoulder.

“Hey,” Bryce gave the girl a comforting smile, “you okay?”

The girl visibly brightened and nodded. Bryce let out a sigh of relief. “Glad to hear that. What’s your name?”

“V-velvet,” she responded timidly, as if saying something would bring his wrath or any of the other upon her.

“Where’s your team?” Bryce was worried Velvet’s team was also racist, as she sure hadn’t had any help back there, and he didn’t want to leave her out to dry. He couldn’t be there every time she was bullied, but he didn’t want to let her be bullied if he could help it.

“Detention.” This response surprised Bryce, and he had an inkling of a feeling he knew why they were there.

“Why?”

“They beat up another guy that said a racist comment to me.”

“What’s your team’s name?”

“Team CVFE (Coffee).”

“Well, if they’re ever gone, find me. I’ll make sure you don’t have problems again.”

Velvet looked up at Bryce, sincerely shocked. She was so used to racist comments and threats, she’d only heard such kind and comforting words from her family and her own team. She hugged Bryce as tears fell slowly down her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Bryce chuckled softly before patting her on the back.

“Well, I wasn’t gonna sit by and let it happen. I’m not that kind of person.”

“Still,” Velvet sniffled, as she slowly detached herself from him. She still looked worried. Bryce reached up and ruffle her hair and ears.

“Hey, be proud of your heritage. They make you look adorable.”

Velvet blushed. “T-thank you.”

Bryce nodded and turned to leave, only to see the crowd of students who were silent and in awe, as well as a shocked team JNPR standing next to an amazed team RWBY, with a proud looking Blake in the back. Before Bryce could properly say anything, a voice rang out from the broken window.

“Mr. Anderson!” Bryce flinched as the voice of Glynda Goodwitch cut through the air. He turned to see a very angry and displeased Ms. Goodwitch standing at the front of the window. “Ozpin’s office. Now.” The finality of her words made Bryce nervous for a brief second, before looking at Ruby.

“I think I’m in trouble.”

Ruby giggled, while Weiss rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Oh, you think?”

Ignoring Weiss, bryce jumped up to the window seal and followed Ms. Goodwitch. He smirked inwardly at the shocked faces of students as he passed by. Bryce wasn’t a prideful guy, but he took silent gratification from the situation.

Ms. Goodwitch led him through the winding hallways of Beacon Academy. They finally entered an elevator that took them to what Bryce assumed was the top floor of the building. When the doors opened up, Bryce saw an office that looked like it was part of the school's clock tower. Bryce looked at Ozpin, who sat behind a black desk. He was reading a document while sipping from his precious coffee mug. As Glynda’s heels clicked on the floor, Ozpin looked up and smiled.

“Ah, Bryce, good to see you.” Ozpin said. Bryce nodded, while Ms. Goodwitch huffed.

“Ozpin, can we please focus on the task at hand, rather than pleasantries.”

“Fine, I’ll cut my talk. You do realize the best idea with these discussions is to create calm conversation and ease into the subject. It keeps people from being overly nervous about a problem.”

“Your ‘conversations’ are mere drabble, taking away from the real point of the student’s presence.” Ms. Goodwitch seemed MAD. Bryce didn’t know why, nor did he rightly care.

“Huh, alright. So, I think the subject of this talk is fairly obvious.”

“Either the match with Pyrrha Nikos, or beating down Cardin Winchester. Although, I’m going to assume both.”

“You’d be correct on the latter. I wanted to figure your general skill level, and talk about your reaction to Cardin’s bullying.” Ozpin chuckled. “Though, I can say I’m partly pleased by your actions to Winchester.”

Bryce raised an eyebrow, while Ms. Goodwitch scoffed.

“How so?”

“I’d been worried about what your thoughts on faunus would be. It seems my worries were misplaced.”

Bryce snorted. “I live in a world where we interact with alien species, all the time, on a regular basis. People with animal features is at the bottom of weird, intelligent species I’ve seen. If I think of those as people, I wouldn’t be hard pressed to think of faunus as people as well.”

“I’m glad to hear that. The main issue I have with this fight with Cardin will be a reoccurring issue. He’s not the best person right now, but I believe he could be a great Hunter in the war against the grimm. So I don’t want you beating him 24/7. Also, I’d appreciate it if you refrain from doing the same to other students. If violence does occur, don’t injure them too much.”

“I make no promises,” Bryce sighed, the snorted. “But I'll try my best.”

“That’s all I’m asking for. Now, onto the main subject of today.” Ozpin looked to Ms. Goodwitch, who nodded and lifted her tablet to Bryce. He watched as he and Pyrrha duked it out. Finally, he used his semblance and fired off his pistol. The blasts from the gun shook the camera off center and ruined the audio.

“You showed a great deal of power here.”

“True, but it’s not the best I can do. So what’s the issue?” Bryce was confused as to why they were so worried about this. He hadn’t announced what he was, so he didn’t rightly see an issue.

“The problem is what you’ll attract. Whether or not your true background is revealed, if you so offhandedly wield such power that easily outclasses everyone your age, you’ll draw the attention of bad people who want to use you. That will only cause more problems than we might be able to deal with.”

Ms. Goodwitch glared at Bryce. “Quite so. Your little ‘display’ has already been posted to the Remnet and gone viral. We already have HUNDREDS of people calling from all sorts of schools to come to the Vytal festival earlier JUST to see and/or fight you. And we don’t know how many of them are good or bad.”

‘ It seems we forgot to factor in our strength compared to this world in terms of eye-catching.” Alpha said. “ That is an oversight on my part, and I do apologize for that.”

‘It’s cool Alpha. We should’ve both thought of the repercussions of looking powerful in front of so many people. Plus, we forgot cell phones, which is easily the biggest oversight in a modern era EVER.’

‘ Very true. Though, I do wonder what this Vytal festival is.’

‘We can look it up later.’

“I’m sorry for the problems I’ve caused, and I’ll try to tone it down unless it’s deemed absolutely necessary.” Bryce told the two professors. They both nodded, albeit Ms. Goodwitch a bit reluctantly.

“That seems fair,” Ozpin agreed, “Now, as a last note of business, I would appreciate it if the two teams you monitor are team RWBY and JNPR. call it a hunch, but I have a feeling they’ll be both causing and getting involved in trouble during their stay at Beacon. It would greatly ease my mind if I knew a capable person such as yourself is watching over them. As it would obviously incite problems and curiosity if they were followed by a professor, I think the safer, and better option is to have you stick with them and be apart of any big things they get into.

“I’ll do that.”

“Good. I think our discussion is done for the current moment,” Ozpin gestured to the door, “You’re free to return to your classes.”

Bryce thanked both of them as he stood from the chair he’d taken residence in. As he walked to the elevator doors, ozpin called out, “Oh, and Bryce.”

“Bryce turned to look at ozpin, who had an amused grin on his face. “Please, next time you decide to intimidate a student, use the gun first. I think it’ll solve the problem much faster.”

Bryce smirked. “Alright, I think I can do that. Sounds like fun.” And with that, he headed into the elevator and descended down to the main floor.

 

…

 

“Cinder!” An orange haired man, dressed in a pristine white and red suit called out from a nearby computer in the warehouse containing all the dust any army could ever desire. The woman in question was talking to her subordinates, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury black. The woman turned and looked at the man with a weird sort of amusement in her amber eyes. She had black hair, and wore a form fitting red dress, lined with dust. Her arms were covered by similarly decorated red sleeves. Her dark glass heels clicked on the floor.

“Oh, Roman Torchwick,” Cinder Fall smiled to the Master Thief, “What a lovely surprise. Have you finished gathering the dust I require?”

“Oh, I’m getting there. But I think you’ll want to see a new variable that just appeared.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “Oh, do tell. What have you found.

Roman lifted a scroll up and tapped the play button. A video of Bryce’s fight against Pyrrha played on screen. Emerald and Mercury stared, shocked as Bryce displayed his power. Cinder’s smile only grew more amused. When Bryce fired of his pistol, even cinder looked shocked as they watched the arena get torn to pieces, and the damage it do Pyrrha, how it’d punched right through her aura, when she had almost two-thirds of it left. They were especially surprised when the shockwaves from the four simultaneous blasts shook whoever’s scroll it was out of their hands. The video ended in static.

“Oh my Oum,” Emerald muttered. Mercury looked at Roman in astonishment.

“Is this real?” Mercury’s question got a mere nod and smile from Roman. “This is… crazy.” Mercury began to grin. “It’s exciting.”

“Oh, and that’s not even the half of it,” Roman chuckled, “It seems our new friend just showed up randomly and was inserted into Beacon by dear old Ozpin. Ozpin only does that for people who he’s interested in or he thinks can help him in the future, and we all know what that means.”

“He’s different. And it has to be big.” Cinder finished. She smiled mischievously at Roman. “Thank you Roman, this will be very useful information. See what more you can dig up about our new friend.”

“Hey, I may be many things, but useless? Never gonna happen, my dear.”

“Watch how you address her, Torchwick,” Emerald growled, raising an accusatory finger to the criminal. Roman only snickered.

“Or what, doll? You’re gonna swing at me with your imaginary weapons?” Roman proceeded to lift up Emerald’s dual wielding pistols up, in their sickle form. Emerald looked flustered as she looked to her sides, while Roman and Mercury laughed. She stomped up to the well dressed man and swiped her weapons from him before returning to Cinder’s side.

“Now, now. There’s no time for such play. We need to further our plans. Especially,” Cinder pointed to Bryce’s frozen image on the scroll, pistol raised, sword in his right hand, the look on his face showing he was enjoying himself. “That there is a new piece in play.” Cinder gestured to the three of them. “Go, you all know your roles. Do what needs to be done.”

The three pawns left, leaving Cinder to look at the scroll one more time. “The only question is, what kind of piece are you?”


	5. Falling in a Forest

Falling in a Forest

Bryce had a lot of trouble finding his next class with Dr. Oobleck, especially since his fight with Pyrrha had damaged his scroll, and was currently being repaired by one of the techies Ozpin apparently had on campus. This of course led to him getting to class ten minutes late. As he walked through the doors, a man in a dress shirt with green hair and glasses appeared in front of him.

“Mr. Anderson, I assume,” the man said quickly.

“Mother of all creation, where did you come from!” Bryce jumped, startled at the man’s sudden appearance. Even Alpha was mildly shocked at how fast the man had appeared.

“Mr. Anderson, can you please explain why you are late to class?”

“I was talking to Professor Ozpin, and couldn’t find the class due to my broken scroll.”

“Is this talk with Ozpin something I need to be notified about,” Dr. Oobleck questioned, leering over his glasses. From somewhere else in the classroom, Bryce heard Cardin snort.

“He probably got in trouble for what he did at lunch.”

Bryce gave a quick smirk at Cardin, signifying he felt no regret for his actions, before looking back to the professor.

“Nothing big, he just wanted to finalize somethings for my stay at Beacon. Other than that, not much really.”

Cardin growled at hearing the guy who’d beat him in front of everyone at Beacon basically got a pass from the headmaster. Dr. Oobleck nodded, giving a quick glance in Cardin’s direction, then spoke.

“Very well, please take a seat so I can continue on with the lesson.” Bryce nodded and sat down next to Blake, who nodded slightly to acknowledge his presence, before looking back to the professor as he continued his lesson.

“Now, as I was saying before Mr. Anderson’s arrival interrupted me, what advantage was it the faunus forces had over General Laguna's army in the battle of Fort Castle.”

As Dr Oobleck looked around, Cardin flicked a paper football into the back of Jaune’s head, causing him to let out an annoyed ‘hey.’ Before he could turn and say anything to Cardin, Dr. Oobleck appeared right in his face.

“Mr. Arc, glad to finally see you contributing to class!”

To say Jaune was surprised with the professor’s sudden appearance in front of him would be an understatement. Jaune nearly fell over in shock, causing him to stumble over his words.

“T-the advantage,” Jaune started, fumbling for more as he desperately tried to think of the answer, “the a-advantage th-the faunus had,” Jaune noticed Pyrrha motioning to her eyes, “over that guy’s stuff…” Pyrrha held her hands around her eyes, trying to make it look as if she was looking through somewhere dark. Jaune’s eyes widened as he understood and blurted out the answer.

“Binoculars!” Or what he took as the answer.

Jaune’s answer caused everyone to begin laughing, with the exception of Pyrrha, Weiss, and Blake. Cardin specifically was laughing harder than anyone else. Dr. Oobleck took notice of this and looked up to the leader of team CRDL.

“Very funny Mr. Arc. Cardin, perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject?”

Cardin kicked his feet up on his desk and smiled. “Well, I know it’s lots easier to train an animal than a soldier.” Bryce growled quietly at Cardin’s comment. He really was starting to hate the cocky bully more than he already had. You’d think getting his butt handed to him would take him down a notch.

“You’re not the most open-minded of individuals, are you Cardin,” Pyrrha deadpanned, looking directly at Cardin.

“What, you got a problem?” Cardin sneered.

“No, I have the answer,” Pyrrha looked towards Dr. Oobleck as she spoke, “It’s night vision. Many faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark.” Blake brightened and continued Pyrrha’s answer with further detail.

“General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to attack the faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured,” Blake looked over to Cardin as she finished her thought with a smirk on her face, “Perhaps if he’d paid more attention in class, he wouldn’t be known as such a failure.”

Cardin rose from his seat in anger as the class ‘oohed’ at the burn. Before he could do anything though, Dr. Oobleck stopped him.

“Mr. Winchester, please take your seat.” Bryce was still snickering at Blake’s comment and offered the girl a high five under the table, which she gracefully accepted with a smile. Jaune was laughing a bit more loudly, holding his gut laughing as the rest of the class was quiet. Dr. Oobleck appeared in front of Jaune again, and continued talking to Cardin, but looked at Jaune.

“You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for some additional readings.”

Jaune slumped, before Doctor Oobleck continued. Once class ended, as Bryce packed up his things, Doctor Oobleck called out to him.

“Mr. Anderson, it would be beneficial to you to get the notes you missed from one of your classmates.” Bryce nodded, and walked out with team RWBY as they gathered up before heading back to their dorm.

“So,” Weiss started, glancing at Bryce, “what did Ozpin punish you with for your actions.”

Bryce smiled as he answered. “Absolutely nothing.”

Weiss’ jaw dropped, while the others laughed. “How is that possible! Even if you were protecting another student, you should’ve at least gotten in a little trouble for your actions.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a special circumstance. Plus, Cardin’s pride is the only thing that took any real damage.” Bryce smirked, as Weiss huffed.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” Yang grinned as she punched his shoulder. Bryce smiled back.

“That’s not all, he also told me that next time I go to deal with something like that, I should use the gun first.”

Everyone went quiet, looking at Bryce in shock, his grinning face telling them all they needed to know. Finally, Ruby squealed.

“Really?”

“Really.”

Ruby jumped up and did a little dance. “Yay, I get to see it more often.”

Bryce looked at Ruby weirdly before speaking. “You really need to make more friends, it’s starting to affect you.”

“What, no I don’t. I’m perfectly healthy.”

Blake sighed, as she joined the conversation, glancing at Ruby from over her book. “Ruby, you just got excited about seeing a deadly weapon being pointed at people and used to harm them.”

“Yeah, and?” Everyone else sighed as Ruby stared at them innocently.

“Nevermind, just forget it,” Yang groaned, wondering what she was going to do with her weapon obsessed sister.

“So, do you wanna hang out right now?” Ruby asked hopefully. Bryce just shook his head.

“Sorry, I’ve got a lot I’ve got to catch up on. Thanks to me entering the year even a day late, I have more homework than you guys, and I’d rather not leave it undone any longer than I have to. Plus, I have a lot to learn about the area, as I didn’t really grow up with this stuff.”

“Oh,” Ruby pouted slightly, before perking up again, “Wait, why don’t you study with us?”

Bryce smiled, “Sorry, I’d rather do this on my own. But I promise to hang out as much as you want when I get done.”

Ruby puffed her cheeks out sadly. “Promise,” she said, sticking out her pinky. Bryce sighed internally, as she was reminding her so much of his sisters.

“Promise,” Bryce agreed, gripping her pinky with his own.

As Bryce walked away from them as they walked into their own dorm, Alpha spoke to him.

“You didn’t have to lie to them.”

Bryce winced at the comment. ‘I didn’t lie to them, I am going to be studying, just not the material they’re thinking about.’

“I know that, but it wouldn’t hurt to say you’re studying personal subjects.”

Bryce sighed as he pulled out his scroll. ‘Just enter the scroll, and do what you need to. We need to see if there’s any known research that could help us get home before my Omni-energy replenishes. It’s replenishing a lot slower than usual.’

“That might be due to the fact that we don’t have such a strong connection. If we were back home, your creation-energy and destruction-energy would’ve taken four hours to replenish. Because it took twelve hours, we can safely say it takes at least three times the amount of time to regenerate, plus, we’ve never had to use so much at once. That could add to how long it’s taking.”

‘That’s true,” Bryce acknowledged. He sat on his bed as he looked at the scroll. Alpha simply manifested himself, revealing himself to be a glowing blue avatar in a suit. He grabbed the scroll, and simply held it. Bryce watched as Alpha began hacking through all the defenses each government had to access their top secret research. As Alpha sifted through the information to find anything important for Bryce to look over, Bryce opened the window and sat on his window ledge. That was when he heard Jaune shout.

“I got some hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!”

Bryce’s attention went from his thoughts to the conversation occurring just up above him. Bryce heard Pyrrha gasped, obviously meaning she was there too.

“What? But… why?”

Jaune sounded frustrated as he continued “Cause this is all I’ve wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough.”

Bryce heard the shuffling of feet, as he could only assume Pyrrha was approaching Jaune

Jaune almost roared, which made Bryce flinch. “I don’t **want** help! I don’t **want** to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!”

“Jaune, I-” Jaune didn’t let her finish.

“I’m tired of being the lovable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don’t you understand?! If I can’t do this on my own… then what good am I?”

There was silence for a second, and more shuffling.

“Just… leave me alone. Okay?”

Bryce was silent as Pyrrha walked away. He was half-tempted to go up there himself and see if he could help, but he had the sinking feeling he’d only make things worse than they already were. But ten seconds later, he regretted his decision. There was laughter, and it sounded a lot like Cardin.

“Oh, Jaune…”

Jaune was obviously just as shocked to hear, or rather see in Jaune’s case, Cardin as Bryce, if his reaction was anything to go off of. “Cardin.”

Bryce only listened in shocked silence as he heard Cardin continue on and blackmail Jaune into doing his dirty work for him. He couldn’t intervene this time. Doing that would only cause more problems for Jaune, as well as make him feel even more useless, which would just ruin his confidence even more. Bryce clenched his fist in anger.

“Dang it, Jaune,” Bryce mumbled to himself as he retreated into his dorm.

“You know you can’t do anything about it,” Alpha commented. Bryce just sighed and nodded.

“Do you have anything for me?” Bryce asked, trying to get his mind off the topic.

“Sadly, no. It seems while they are advanced in their own right, they’ve never had the desire to travel dimensions. Probably due to the Grimm infestation that no doubt is causing them to focus on weaponry and dust manipulation rather than other advances, such as space travel or dimensional travel.”

‘Huh…” Bryce sighed, flopping onto the bed. “This day really isn’t turning out to be a good day.” Bryce looked out the window to the setting sun and the shattered moon.

“I really hope tomorrow turns out to be better.

 

…

 

For the next week leading up to the trip to Forever Fall that Professor Peach announced, Jaune hung out with Cardin, though it was obvious to everyone it wasn’t very willing, even though they didn’t know the reasons why, unlike Bryce. They would ask Jaune and he’d say they were just getting along better and Cardin was being a real friend, but they all knew that was lie. And Bryce hated that he had to lie the others about having no idea why Jaune was acting like this.

Bryce hadn’t known Jaune for long, but he knew he was kind, a good friend, and a smart guy. Maybe not socially, and he struggled a bit in history, but whatever shortcoming he had disappeared behind his genius in battle. He was a natural leader in a fight, and understood many basic rules of team fighting and strategies that many people took years to grasp. And Bryce respected Jaune for that intelligence. But it all meant moot if Jaune was going to let himself be bullied like this and taken advantage of.

Bryce sighed as they boarded the bullhead that would take the class to the forest of  Forever Fall. As they flew over their destination, Bryce admired the red leaved forest in all its beauty. It helped him take his mind off all the drama that was occurring, if just for five minutes. Once the bullheads touched down and the students got off the vehicle and began navigating the forest. As the class walked through the foliage, Glynda Goodwitch explained why they were here.

“Yes students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we’re not here to sightsee. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from deep inside the forest. And I’m here to make sure none of you die while doing so.”

As Bryce watched from the back, Jaune bumped into Cardin, who glared at him menacingly. Jaune whistled innocently as he held a box in his hands with the jars to collect samples on top of the box. Bryce sighed as he turned back to Ms. Goodwitch.

“Each team will have to collect four jars, one for each person. But be careful, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o’clock. Have fun.”

Bryce watched as Jaune tried to sneak off away from Cardin, only for Cardin to smile, and grab Jaune’s hood.

“Come on buddy, let’s go.” Before Cardin dragged Jaune off, he looked at Pyrrha, who was looking at him sadly, as if waiting for him to come along with the rest of their team. Jaune sighed as followed Cardin. Pyrrha looked down trodden as Jaune walked off, head falling and a sad sound came from her lips. She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll look out for him,” Bryce said, motioning to Jaune, “You go with your team.”

Pyrrha smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

  


From Bryce’s position in the bushes where team CRDL was camping out, he watched as Jaune fell to the floor after putting down the jars he’d just collected. The team turned to look at him as Cardin smiled.

“Hey, great work,” he commented, a sadistic smile on his face, “now that wasn’t too hard, was it?”

“I think I’m allergic to this stuff,” Jaune whined nasally, as his eyes spun around, pupils dilated. He really didn’t look good, and Bryce wanted to intervene, but knew doing so know could only cause problems down the road.

Totally ignoring Jaune’s plight, Cardin continued on. “Great great great, so Jaune, I bet you're asking yourself, ‘why did my buddy Cardin ask me to collect seven jars of tree sap when there’s only five of us.’”

Looking up to Cardin from his position on the ground, Jaune replied, “That is one of the many questions I have asked myself today, yes.”

Sitting up, Jaune looked at Cardin as he began to explain. “Well, come with me, and you’ll find out.” Jaune groaned as he walked with Cardin. Bryce followed as silently as he could from the bushes. They walked for a minute before they reached a small cliff face. As Jaune and Bryce looked over the cliff face, they could see teams RWBY and the rest of team JNPR collecting tree sap. Specifically, the closest being Pyrrha. Jaune looked to Cardin nervously as he asked, “Cardin, what’s going on?”

Cardin’s eyes narrowed. “Payback.”

Jaune’s glanced over to Pyrrha and muttered her name, questioningly. Cardin only grimaced at hearing her name. “What do you-”

“That’s the girl,” Cardin growled as he slammed his fist into the ground. “Red hair, know-it-all, thinks she’s so smart. Alright boys,” Cardin smiled as he pulled a box from behind him. Bryce’s heart skipped a beat as he heard buzzing. He didn’t like where this was going. “Last night, old Jaune here managed to round up an entire swarm of Rapier wasps. Now, we’re gonna put ‘em to work.”

Russell smiled and slapped Jaune on the back in a celebratory manner. Jaune just paled as he began to realize where this was going.

“Now,” Cardin sneered as he looked from the box to Pyrrha, who was crouched down by a tree, “According to one of the essays he wrote for me last week, these things love sweets. I’m thinking it’s time we teach her, a thing or two.” Cardin pulled Jaune up from the ground and shoved a Jar of sap into his gut. “And you’re gonna do it.”

“Do what?” Jaune asked innocently, looking up at Cardin nervously.

“Hit her with that sap,” Cardin smirked. “Either that, or I’ll have a chat with Goodwitch, and you’ll be on the first airship out of Beacon.” Cardin smiled as he thought he had Jaune cornered. Bryce wanted to do nothing but beat the absolute crap out of the bully, but he knew that wouldn’t do anything to save Jaune. That’d just cause Cardin to rat to Goodwitch and get Jaune kicked out of Beacon. Something Jaune had obviously wanted for so long and was willing to work hard for.

Jaune looked down at the jar of sap and shifted it in his hands, before looking to Cardin and his team. Jaune readied to throw it and Bryce’s heart nearly dropped.

‘No…’ Bryce thought, ‘Don’t stoop to his level Jaune. Don’t do it, don’t-”

“No.” Jaunes voice was no longer scared or anxious. The pure conviction behind them caused all who heard it to falter for a brief second. Cardin glared at Jaune.

“What did you say?” Cardin leaned forward, daring Jaune to say it again. And then, Jaune dared.

“I said,” Jaune turned quickly and threw the jar at Cardin, “NO!” Jaune flinched as he realized the repercussions of what he’d done. Cardin laughed slowly, before looking at Jaune eerily.

“Ah ha ha, you’ve done it now.”

What proceeded next was violent. Cardin punched Jaune and began monologuing. Bryce didn’t pay it much attention as he was currently moving to intercept and intervene. Jaune had shown what he believed in, and what he held most important. Now, Bryce wanted to stop this before it got ugly. But before Bryce reached team CRDL and Jaune, a huge roar emanated from close to the five figures. Turning, they saw an Ursa Major come charging out of the woods. It roared before focusing on Cardin, noticing and smelling the potent sap smeared across his breastplate. Russel, Dove, and Sky ran off, one of them screaming something about it being a big Ursa, leaving Jaune laying on the ground, and Cardin standing in front of the giant Grimm.

Before Cardin could move, he was hit aside by the large monster. The Ursa glared at Jaune before moving to go after Cardin. As Cardin crawled back, not having time or room to get up with the approaching beast, he reached for his mace, only for it to be knocked aside once he pulled it up. The mace landed at Jaune’s feet, who only stared helplessly at the situation. Bryce went to join the fight, only for Alpha to stop him.

“This may be the experience we were looking for to get Cardin of Jaune’s back, as well as instill some confidence in him. Leave it be.” Bryce heeded Alpha’s words and stayed hidden in the trees.

Cardin turned to run, only for the Ursa to leap in front of the fleeing boy, and with a claw swipe, knock him to the ground. It roared at the fallen boy, before swinging again. The attack was stopped by Jaune’s shield. As Jaune pushed back the attack, he struck with his own weapon. The Ursa fell back a bit, only to recover and continue the attack.

Jaune was knocked around, his shield keeping him from taking large amounts of damage. Jaune let loose a battle cry as he and the Ursa ran at each other, each aiming for the finishing blow. In that swing, Bryce felt something stir and spread through Jaune. He saw it flow from his soul to his legs and arms, strengthen them, bolster them to new levels previously impossible for the young man. And he knew exactly what it was.

“Creation energy,” Bryce gasped, as he recognized the inherently white power source. The idea was ground breaking. This was a new discovery as far as Bryce knew. None of the dimensions had ever been discovered to have naturally occurring creation or destruction energy, let alone someone who could naturally wield its power. This not only changed everything for Septonians, but for humanity here on Remnant. The scope of his power, while normal in his world, was Remnant-shattering here. If someone could wield it naturally, even host it here on Remnant, it created a new spark of hope for them. It meant so much for them if they could have such a devastating power on their side.

Lost in his own thoughts, Bryce didn’t even notice Pyrrha walk up to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. Coming out of his thoughts, he looked to the red-haired girl, who was smiling at him in appreciation.

“I thank you for watching over him. It honestly helped me knowing someone strong would be there for him if anything went wrong.” Pyrrha’s thanks helped Bryce focus on the world again, which was definitely needed seeing how his mind was swimming in ideas and possibilities.

“Your welcome. I was glad to help him out. I hated seeing him get pushed around like that and felt like I had to do something.” Bryce waved off the praise, small as it was. He did what he’d normally do in this situation. That didn’t require thanks of any kind.

Pyrrha just shook her head. “It still means a lot to me that you would do this for both me and him. And for that, I thank you.”

Bryce smiled. “I hope everything works out.” Bryce’s face grew serious as he thought about his recent discovery. “But, I have news. Important news.”

Pyrrha's face became concerned. “Is it bad? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing bad, but definitely serious. I’ll tell both you and Jaune later, after we get back from the mission.” Pyrrha accepted this, and waved as she walked back over to Jaune, who was looking more pathetic than he ever had before with an apologetic look displayed across his face.

Bryce relaxed for a brief moment. He’d have inform Ozpin about Jaune, as well as Jaune and Pyrrha. Probably teach him how to use his latent powers, but that was all good things. Finally, things in Remnant could turn around for the better.

“Bryce, get out of your optimistical thoughts, we have trouble,” Alpha’s voice surprised Bryce. Bryce looked around to see if anyone else was nearby, before he began to talk in depth with his A.I. companion.

“What’s going on Alpha,” Bryce whispered, looking back to the group as Ms. Goodwitch came into view, followed by the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR that hadn’t been present for the fight.

“In all we’ve learned about Grimm, Their bodies dissipate after they’re killed, do you remember that?”

“Yeah, I know that. So what’s-”

“Look to the Ursa Jaune killed.” Bryce felt a chill run up his spine as he looked. Bryce looked to the ground were the Ursa had fallen. Its body had mostly disappeared, but there on the ground, staring at him, sat its head. And its eyes were glowing bright blood red.

 

…

 

Salem had never been one to feel nervous. Throughout her long life, she’d been accustomed to being the one with power, never threatened by other beings that lived on the world of Remnant, even Ozpin. But after Cinder had reported a new piece that was unknown now in play, she’d felt the need to investigate.

Thanks to Cinder’s information, Salem had discovered the new piece was now a first year at Beacon, and was joining everyone on their trip to the forest of Forever Fall. It’d been easy enough to manipulate the Ursa Major to attack the students through her seer.

Salem had originally thought the blond Arc boy had been the new piece Cinder had mentioned. He had power, that was sure, and he was indeed interesting, but with the worry that Cinder had made about this new piece, she doubted it. And her suspicions when she spotted him, hidden in the trees. And once she had, her black heart heart had stopped, and her already white skin paled even more, ever so slightly.

She recognized the power that laid within him. She knew it all to well. It was the power of those who had exiled her for tampering in the powers of monsters. In wanting the strength of those who hurt them. The power of monsters that had wrecked the universe as they knew it. The power of a Septonian, just. Like. Her. Only he was much younger, and held an even newer power within him.

Salem knew how much of a threat he stood if left alone. He was young and unrefined, but those were always the most dangerous ones. The ones that could sharpen instantly in a hard moment to turn into a deadly blade you hadn’t known had been there. And she couldn’t allow him to risk everything she’d built up to for hundreds of years.

“Tyrian,” Salem kept the anxiety out of her voice as she smiled and motioned for the sitting scorpion faunus. He walked over, and grinned. He quickly brushed off some Grimm remains his white clothing, and brushed back his black hair to allow him to look at her properly, with the proper respect that needed to be shown to a goddess.

“Yes, my liege,” Tyrian's insane smile would’ve scared many other lesser people. Salem was not one of them.

“Go take the hordes and take the silver-eyed girl. As well as take care of our new… guest.” Salem said, showing Tyrian a picture of the boy through the seer.

Tyrian’s smile grew grew more maniacal. “Of course, goddess.” As Tyrian moved to carry out her orders, he began laughing crazily, showing his insane excitement to carry out the task. Once he was gone, Salem’s smile fell. She ran a hand through her white hair, and narrowed her red eyes as she saw the young man staring directly into the eyes of the dead Ursa Major. Apparently he had caught on. She watched him pull out a large pistol, and point it at the decapitated head. There was a loud bang, and her connection to the beheaded Grimm was cut.

Salem stared off into the lands she’d controlled for so long. She watched as Grimm rose from the pools of black miasma she’d created so long ago. She’d worked too hard for this, for far too long. She wouldn’t, no, _couldn’t_ allow some young, Septonian upstart to ruin everything. And that was something that was absolutely unforgivable. She’d use everything in her power to stop him before that happened.

 

…

 

Bryce looked around worriedly as he approached Ms. Goodwitch, who was conversing with his eight friends. Ms. goodwitch turned to say something to him, but stopped when she saw his face.

“Mr. Anderson, what seems to be the problem?” Ms. Goodwitch asked, crossing her arms as she looked at the approaching boy.

“I need to talk to you. In private,” Once Ms. Goodwitch shot him a questioning look, he explained a bit more, “It has to do with my ‘stay’ here at Beacon.”

Ms. Goodwitch understood instantly, and quickly dismissed the two teams, much to Ruby and Nora’s dismay. Bryce waited to continue till he was sure they were out of earshot. “Someone was watching me through the Grimm Jaune killed.”

“What?” Ms. Goodwitch’s face fell as she heard this.

“After Jaune killed that Ursa, the head didn’t dematerialize. Its eyes were still glowing red, as if it were alive, and it was looking directly at me, even though it originally hadn’t been. Someone or something was watching me.”

“Salem,” Ms. Goodwitch cursed and gripped her riding crop tighter. Bryce felt confused as to who this Salem person was, but it certainly wasn’t good.

“Who-?”

“Someone Ozpin was hoping you wouldn’t have to worry about for some time. It seems his hopes-our hopes- were for not.”

Before Bryce could press for information, Alpha shouted a warning, through the newly built speaker Alpha had suggested he build for Goodwitch and Ozpin’s benefit.

“ Bryce, huge Grimm incoming, south east. ” 

Bryce drew Alpha and turned towards the called out direction as the ground began to shake, causing all other conversations to stop. The sound of crashing trees scared multiple students.

“ Ms. Goodwitch, it would be beneficial for you to take all the students out of here. Bryce and I can handle this. ” 

“And you would be?” Goodwitch questioned, raising her riding crop for a fight.

“Introductions later, get them out of here. They can’t handle a fight like this. ”

Before Bryce or Goodwitch could question what he meant, a horde of Grimm, Ursai, Beowulves, Nevermores, Griffons, and dozens of Goliaths came charging out of the treeline. Many students screamed and began booking it to the bullheads. Bryce lifted Alpha to cut through a couple charging Beowulves. Ms. Goodwitch shot large icicles at a group of Ursa that were ready to attack some of the weaker students.

“Are you sure you can cover us,” Ms. Goodwitch asked, as she and Bryce continued their assault.

“Ms. Goodwitch, if you get the rest of the students out of here, I can promise that Alpha and I can take care of the rest of the Grimm,” Bryce affirmed, putting all his aura enhanced strength into a powerful swing, releasing some destruction energy behind it to create a glowing white arc of energy that cut through nearly a hundred Grimm. Ms. Goodwitch nodded, as she understood what he was saying. ‘As soon as they’re gone, I can let loose. Get them to safety.’

“All students follow me. We’re heading back to the bullhead now!” Ms. Goodwitch shouted as she dropped some larger Alpha Beowulves with a wave of fire. Ms. Goodwitch gave one last look to Bryce before leading the students safely to the direction of the airships they had arrived on.

Once all the students were all gone, Bryce smiled. “Now, then,” Bryce reformed his power from aura back to its normal state. Bryce felt any tension in his muscles leave him as the comforting feeling of Creation, Destruction, and the small remnants of his Omni energy flowed through him. His power back to normal, Bryce obliterated an entire horde of Ursai and Beowulves with a wave of plasma, “Let’s begin the real party.”

 

…

 

In a distant place, two ancient beings of power stirred from their slumber. Something in their creation was wrong. The world they created had become unbalanced. And it needed to be fixed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. If you enjoy, please leave me a comment on what you liked and didn't like. Tell me what you wanna see change in the future. Also, give me some kudos if you want to see more of this. Anyway, I also want to promote an amazing person who I think you'd all enjoy if you like this story. Go onto wattpad, and check out Aubreydemoux, who has an amazing original stories. Yep, that's right, an original story, not a crappy fanfic like me (ha ha ha ha ha, please end my suffering). Joking aside, she's a really good author, and I think you'd like her if you give her a shot. Anyway, till next time, and as always, Stay Cool.


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